


Trouble from the Triassic

by Fireflykat



Series: Anomalies in America [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Primeval
Genre: Dinosaurs, Emily meets Connor in Victorian times before he meets her in present day, F/M, Genius Connor Temple, Injured Connor Temple, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Not Beta Read, Panicking Becker, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale, Sexual Coercion, Suicidal Ideation, Suicidal Thoughts, Triassic, we hate phillip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27624595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fireflykat/pseuds/Fireflykat
Summary: The BAU is hot on the heels of a serial killer when an Anomaly opens up and Connor Temple emerges after being missing in time for six months.
Relationships: Abby Maitland/Original Male Character, Hilary James Becker/Connor Temple, Matt Anderson/Emily Merchant
Series: Anomalies in America [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043580
Kudos: 3





	1. Aliens

Morgan, Reid and JJ ran after the unsub into the Highpoint State park and stopped dead in their tracks, staring at a phenomenon that none of them could fathom. Moments later Hotch, Rossi and Prentiss caught up also starring in bewilderment. It looked like a shattered mirror, glowing from within, slowly spinning in place. The onlookers stood, weapons pointing at the unfamiliar sight reflexively, when a kid, roughly mid 20s seemed to leap through the glowing phenomenon. He was out of breath and looking over his shoulder as if something was chasing him. The BAU studied him for a moment, making an assessment. Spencer Reid noted the dirty and ragged clothes he was wearing, his matted and filthy hair, and the futuristic looking gun slung over his back. Emily Prentiss eyed the many scars littering the boy’s body, rough and ragged, the layers to his clothes, t-shirt, waist- coat, hat, and ragged strips of cloth around his neck that were probably once a scarf. Aaron Hotchner noticed the gaunt look on the kid’s face, the bags under his eyes, and his dexterity coming out of the dimension he was just in.

When he hit the ground, the boy looked up and stood hastily, fingerless gloved hands in the air. “Might be a weird question to ask, but what’s the year?” Boy asked in a rough northern English accent.

“2010” Rossi replied, furthering his own analysis of the boy, noting how he seemed to almost collapse in relief.

“Thank god for that.” He said. “Been trying to get back here for months.” Then he looked back at the glowing light and added “Er, right. We may want to move,” He said, trying as hard as he could not to be scared. “No creature coming through there is something you’re gonna want to be mates with.” Then he added as an afterthought, “Trust me, I would know. And since I don’t have a locker with me right now, I can’t close it up.” after a pause he said “Although with a laptop and a few spare computer parts and about 20 minutes, I could probably rig something that could do for now.”

Hotch sighed and motioned for everyone to put their guns down. The boy seemed to relax a bit. “Anyone have a mobile I could borrow?” he asked brightly “I need to ring my team.”

Spencer handed out his phone asking at the same time “What is that? And what happened to you?”

The Brit just grinned as he dialed a number. “Becks?” he held the phone from his ear for a few moments as if the person on the other line was shouting. “Wha? Six months? I’m so sorry!” He looked genuinely upset. “It was the triceratops! It came out of nowhere. I unlocked it for the tricy to go back and it’s tail knocked me through and it disappeared right before I could come back through.” There was a pause, “I’m in America. I think. Accents seem American.” he turned to the agents in front of him. “Where am I?” He asked them, one hand to the phone

“New Jersey.” JJ said

“Yeah, East Coast United States.” He said back into the Phone. “It’s Triassic era, not pretty.” There was a pause. “I can try to hold it for now, but nothing I rig out of what I find in refuse is going to last that long. 3-4 hours tops. Plus my EMD is outa juice.” there was another pause. A smile crossed the man’s face “Can’t wait to see you too, Becks. Tell Abbs I’m safe.” another pause and then his face went rigid. “Can you deal with him for me? … But you know how Lester got last time Abby and I disappeared... Are Matt, Em, and Jess ok?” … He looked back at the BAU, “Oh blimey, I didn’t… yeah... they did… What do I tell them?... Ok, Thanks Becks. See you soon… Yeah, I’ll deal with that… I could probably rig a way to charge the battery of the EMD, now that I have electricity and wiring at my disposal… You know better than to ask me to promise that… Cheers.” He hung up. And walked over to the Federal law enforcement. He held out the phone to the one who gave it to him, and his hand to the one who looked like he was in charge.

“I’m Connor Temple,” He said, “I work for an organisation at the Home Office. Unfortunately that is all I am able to disclose at the moment.” he said, shaking Hotch’s hand.

"SSA Aaron Hotchner, SSA Derek Morgan, SSA David Rossi, SSA, Jennifer Jareau, SSA Emily Prentis, and Dr Spencer Reid."

Connor turned his eyes to Rossi, "Are you really Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi? I've read all your books. Found them at my my council library growing up. Couldn't put them down. I wrote to you about a bunch of disappearances that were going on that no one would look into. Remember?"

Dave looked at Hotch. "I do, Yorkshire, Doncaster, right? that was about 15 years ago." He said surprised. 

"20. I was 8. I remember it vividly. I had just finished reading your books, they brought them over from another library in the county for me that weekend. The librarians loved me. I think I read half the library that summer." Emily looked dumbfounded

"I had written 5 books by then." Connor nodded eagerly. "I tried to space them out, but I couldn't, It took me an entire day" Hotch's eyebrows shot up. He looked at Reid 

"Did they ever catch the killer?" Rossi asked. 

Connor nodded sadly. "I showed them your letter, but they didn't want to listen to me as I was just a kid. Finally, two more murders later they decided to hear me out. And your profile was right."

"If I recall correctly, You were the one who gave me the information and asked if the profile you had was correct. You gave the profile. down to a 5 year age factor and geographical profile. i just took the facts of the case and confirm it." Rossi said. Connor blushed. "I thought a detective was writing to me. You were 8 years old at the time?" Connor nodded. "You are in the wrong line of work kid, want a job at the BAU?" Hotch laughed. 

Connor beamed. "No, I'm happy where I am. Speaking of which, my boss will most likely be calling on the phone I just called from to speak to the agent in charge and explain the situation. And possibly chew me out.” He grumbled a bit at the last bit. “If we are to keep this situation from getting any worse,” he said frankly, “I am going to need some things.”

“Wait a moment.” Hotch said, “We were in the middle of chasing an Unsub when that thing turned up.”

“He ran right into it.” JJ put in.

“Yeah, I thought I saw someone come through, I didn’t want to say anything.” Connor mentioned, fidgeting.

“We have to go arrest him” Morgan said with frustration, “He murdered children! We can’t just let him get away!”

“He didn’t get away,” Connor said, “If that makes you feel better.” They looked confused “behind that shining light is the late Triassic era, Carnian period, that’s 230 to 240 million years ago. If you don’t know what to expect, you won’t last a day.”

Reid winced.

“Also saw a fully grown Lagerpeton grab him while I hid behind a tree.” He grinned.

“You seem awfully blase about all this, Kid” Rossi said with bemusement.

“I’ve been doing it a while.” Connor said, shrugging. “Trust me, I’ve seen worse than a Lagerpeton,” then he remembered. “We really need to lock this thing before that dinosaurmorph comes through to this time.”

“Reid can help you with that, right genius?” Prentiss said with a nudge.

“From what I understand, that isn’t the kind of help he needs,” Reid said carefully, while slightly stiffly. “I’m guessing you don’t need someone else to work out the math.”

“No, I’ve already done that,” Connor said. “I just need the equipment, any laptop that is able to be used, and free reign of wherever the closest electronics recycling is. After I get what I need, It should only take.” paused for a moment, doing some calculations in his head. “15-30 minutes, depending on the usability of the equipment I get and the state of the computer I’m using.”

They stared at him. They had only ever seen Reid work that quickly and talk that matter of factly. Except when it came to computers. Then it seemed that he was on par with Garcia.

“I can take you to get what you need Kid,” Morgan said, Connor lit up, and Morgan smiled down at him.

“You can use my Laptop, if you want,” JJ said, racing behind them and slipping Connor her key. “It’s on the desk.” Then she eyed him. “No hacking.” He gave her a puppy dog look that reminded her very much of Garcia. “Really.” He huffed in mock annoyance and grinned.

“You win!” he said with a laugh. “You remind me of my ex-flatmate.” he said.

“You remind us of our tech analyst.” JJ said looking at Morgan, who nodded.

“Is that why you had to say that?” He asked her. “Is she known for hacking?” Morgan laughed they left the scene

“That’s why she was recruited.” He said. “The FBI decided if they can’t beat her, ask her to work for them, She was never really hacking with any malicious intent anyway.”

Connor looked pleased. “That reminds me of a hacker I know who disappeared a few years back.” He said wistfully. “They were the best, then they just stopped. It was rumoured that they went fed, but no one really knows. Deep web doesn’t do things like name or gender, or even where they are. Everyone just goes by usernames and a signature coding style”

They were close to town now “Did I tell your agents to stay away from the Anomaly in case something comes out of it?”

“Why, is that likely to happen?” Morgan asked with concern.

“Let’s just say, bright light attract lizard .” Connor said nervously.

“So, yes.” Morgan sighed. “You hinted at it saying those things were behind you, and not to go through, but you never actually specifically said to stay away.” He said.

“That’s what I thought,” Connor said, with a bit of trepidation. “I have a habit of doing too many things at once, and forgetting something sometimes. I never forget to finish building something or anything, but especially when I am trying to explain things, I have so many ideas and thoughts whirring around in my head that I get off track and end up not explaining everything, or thinking I did, or sometimes I just expect people to follow my logic without explaining it all. I forget people don’t think as fast as I do.”

Morgan laughed before pulling out his phone as they pulled into the hotel “You and Reid would make excellent conversational partners. JJ’s room is 214, I will be right here.” He rang a number as Connor ran out of the car and into the small Hotel. “Hotch?... Oh, Ok, I will call JJ.” he hung up and tried again. “JJ? We are at the hotel, Connor was about to tell me what to do if something comes out of the Anomaly before he ran in. Seems like he is a bit scatterbrained… No, yeah, Highly intelligent. He said that sometimes he thinks too fast to explain everything, I’m guessing he is some sort of genius like Reid. He said that he forgets that most people can’t follow his logic without his explaining it… yeah, I said they would be good conversation partners. Oh, here he is.” Connor clambered back in the car with a Macbook and its charger. He opened it at once and pulled out the terminal page and started coding furiously. “Hey Connor, I have JJ on the phone, I called her before I realised you never actually said what to do if something comes out of the Anomaly.”

“Make sure it doesn’t notice you,” He said slightly absently. “If it’s the size of an elephant or bigger, don’t get into a vehicle.” He thought for a moment. “I would mark its position on a map and leave until I can finish my makeshift locker. Put cones around the park so no one goes through accidentally and gets stuck through the Anomaly or gets eaten by whatever comes back through. Put any barricades far enough out that civvies won’t see the light.”

“Got that JJ?” Morgan said into the phone. Connor heard a noise of ascent while he typed.

“I need electronic components.” Connor said, turning towards Morgan.

“I’ll call Garcia and ask if she can locate one.” Morgan said, turning on the engine and leaving the parking lot. He dialled a number on his headset again and put it on speaker. 

“Tell me everything you want,” said a female voice on the other end, dripping with innuendo. 

Morgan laughed. “In detail, Baby Girl, but not right now, you’re on speaker.” 

There was a chirp, “Oh, Sorry sir!” 

“Calm down, it’s not Hotch.”

“Can you find an electronic recycling center within 15 miles of our current location?” Connor spoke up, slightly distracted by the coding he was doing on the computer at the same time.

“Of course I can, British Ried,” She said with slight alarm. “Any specific specialty of electronics?” She asked.

“Computer tech, mostly, circuitry, processing and power. I need to make something that can reverse the polarity that interferes with radio frequency 87.6 FM and is highly magnetic. Don’t worry, I’ve done the maths and coding already, I just need the parts. In fact, I have already built it before a few times, I just need some scrap.” 

“Ok, Chocolate thunder, I am sending you an address in the next town over, Yorkshire genius, keep doing what you do.”

“Connor Temple,” he said quickly 

“I prefer Yorkshire genius,” She said happily, “Tootles!”

The recycling center she directed them to was in the next town. While they drove Connor babbled about the dinos in the cretaceous that he met and his most recent journey catching a ride with a triceratops through the late cretaceous where he was able to find an anomaly in a few hours, jumping through to the future (Future??) where he stayed a few days, back to the permian where he stayed for a few weeks and his last month in the Triassic. Morgan tried to keep track. “You said you were gone six months. That is closer to six weeks.” Connor thought for a moment. 

“You’re right…” He said. Then he hit his forehead. “That’s it!” He said, “I stayed with Em for a few months.” He said. Now Derek was thoroughly confused. “Emily is from Victorian England,” Connor tried to explain. “I stayed with her, or the her that was still there, before she was married.” He laughed. “Timelines are weird.”

“That reminds me,” Morgan said, “It seems that your boss was on the phone with mine when I tried to call.” Connor stopped laughing.

“What did Lester say?” He said with trepidation

“Apparently he said that if you brought any pets with you this time he is sending you back.” Morgan said with a smile. Connor grinned. “Hotch said that Lester seemed relieved when he spoke to him.”

“Lester is a sharp tongued bureaucrat,” Connor said “But we suspect he cares. Don’t tell him I said that though, he already threatened to sue for defamation of character once.” he laughed.

Morgan chuckled. They turned into the recycling center and he saw Connor’s eyes light up like it was christmas morning. His foot bounced his knee in irregular excited bounces and he barely waited until the car stopped before the kid had jumped out. “Wait, Connor!” Morgan called as Connor reached a pile of electronic parts piled to his waist. He had already pulled three circuit boards, a transformer, a half dozen LEDs and two dozen foot long wires before he turned around.

“What?” Connor asked, holding everything in one hand.

“I need to talk to the manager before you just go stealing his wares,”

“But it’s refuse,” Connor said, confused. “Why should he care if we take some? He isn’t using it.”

“It’s still his property. Technically.” Morgan tried to explain as he walked up to the office of the recycling center.

“I thought recycling was something that was nationally funded.”

“Maybe in the UK, Kid,” Morgan said, “Not here.”

“The U.S. is weird.” Connor said with a face.

Morgan laughed. “Maybe so, but if the recycling center is nationally funded, aren’t you stealing if you break into a recycling center in the UK?”

“Not if it’s in your district, or council.” Connor said plainly. “You pay council tax, so the council takes care of everything in your area like recycling, garbage, roadworks, stuff like that. It’s your right as a member in a given council to have access to it.”

“Huh,” Morgan said, “That sort of makes sense.” he knocked on the office door. “FBI”

The door opened and a thin scraggly man stood there. “What da ya want?” he said in a strong redneck accent.

“I am SSA Morgan and my Colleague needs some of the refuse from your center, if that is alright.” Morgan said politely.

“It could very well save your life” Connor put in from behind the larger man.

“Are you threatening me?” The owner asked with menace in his voice.

“Absolutely not.” Morgan said, shushing Connor behind him. “Mr Temple was saying that he believes a threat is coming in which could be stopped if he can have access to some of the materials at your disposal.”

The man leaned over and scrunched his dirty face at Connor. “Like Aliens?”

Connor tried not to laugh as he remembered his original dissertation for Cutter. “Yes,” He said very seriously. “Aliens”

The man opened his eyes wide “Ah knew it,” He whispered. “Tha aliens are coming for us all.” he disappeared into his office and slammed his door. “Take whatever ya want!” he shouted through the door.

The two government workers walked back to the recycling pile before Morgan burst out laughing. “How the hell did you know that would work, Kid?”

Connor grinned up at him with a large dimpled smile. “I used to be a conspiracy nut. I can recognise a fellow nut.”

Morgan watched Connor sorting quickly through the electronic parts, picking apart what he needed. “When did you stop?”

“When I joined the ARC.” Connor said, not looking up. “Conspiracy theories aren’t as much fun when you end up in the middle of one.” He paused for a moment, “Plus, the Dodo didn’t help.” He shook his head quickly, then looked up and grinned again. “And when you are stuck for a year in the Cretaceous, fighting dinosaurs just to stay alive, you don’t really have room to think about superfluous things like conspiracy theories in a world three million years in the future.” He pulled item after item. “Can you hold some of this for me?” He asked, then without waiting for an answer he shoved some casings and circuit boards and other items into Morgan’s arms.

Connor stopped, examined everything he had. Grabbed one more item from the pile, then said, “that should do it. I’m just going to need a place to make it.”

They got back in the car and headed back to the park. The about half the agents from before were hanging out chatting at the entrance, barricades in front of the pedestrian and vehicle paths.

Connor jumped out of the car and grabbed the stuff from the recycling center, the car charger, and JJ’s computer, laid it all in the grass then started running towards the trees grabbing sticks and brush. Morgan walked up to Hotch. “That was quick” Hotch said

“Yeah, We barely spent 10 minutes at the recycling plant, and only half of that was him grabbing what he needed. The rest was convincing the owner to give us what we needed.” Morgan laughed. “Connor told him Aliens were coming.”

“That’s not what I said!” Connor said, now sitting in grass, clearing a small area and building a recognisable mound. “I said it could save his life, He asked if I was threatening him, you said ‘Absolutely not, Mr, Temple was just saying that he believes a threat could be coming in which could be stopped by the items in your disposal,’ He said ‘Aliens?’ so I agreed, ‘yes, aliens,’ and from there he said ‘I knew it, the aliens are coming for us all, take what you need.”

Hotch cracked a smile as Connor recited the conversation as easily as a Doctor Who quote he had seen a hundred times, while at the same time building a small fire. Connor took out his knife and plunged it into the ground next to the small fire he was building.

Reid came up and sat next to him as he took the pieces of junk in his hands and started building furiously. “Anything I can do?” he asked

“Can you make something to charge this?” He asked as he tossed the man a strange looking battery. “Save me a minute or two.” he picked a few pieces of wire out of the collection he had gathered. “Here, this is what you should need.” He handed them to Reid who looked at the kid with bewilderment. “Oh, you will need the car too, of course.” Connor clarified. He looked around for a moment before finding the car charger. He pushed it towards Reid. “Thanks!” He took a few pieces of wire and cut them in half with his knife, grabbed a circuit board, broke it in two, and stuck his knife in the flames. He set the knife to the circuit board and took off the resistors and diodes. He took the wire he had just cut and stripped it with his teeth, spun it in his fingers, and thrust it through the new holes, he took the hot knife and reattached the wire to the board.

Morgan and Hotch watched Connor work with awe. “I have never seen someone work so fast.” Morgan said.

“Reid probably would, but he doesn’t really do that sort of thing.” Hotch said “His mind probably goes at least that fast.”

“Connor mentioned something about that before,” Morgan said, “About why he forgot to mention what to do with the anomaly before he left,”

“That was pretty weird.” Hotch said. “I got a rundown from Lester, he said it wasn’t unusual for Connor to run off in the middle of giving someone an explanation, or rather having one explanation turn into three and forgetting to finish any one of them.”

“Connor said something like that,” Morgan said. “He said his mind just goes so fast he forgets that people aren’t keeping up with him,” They watched Connor and Spencer interacting, Connor was still taking things apart and building at an inhuman pace while Spencer was sitting there with his contraption finished and they were chatting a mile a minute.

Emily walked over. “I just walked past the two geniuses and I swear to god I have no idea what they are saying.” She said.

Connor stood up and crunched out the fire, he opened the computer and started typing again. What he had finished looked sort of like a microphone, if it was covered in LEDs and was attached to a rectangular base of wires.

“Done!” He said. “I don’t know how long this will hold, but hopefully it will keep until either the Anomaly goes away, or my team brings me a real locker.” Conner said. “This one is a bit of a mangy mess, but it should do the trick.”

He took the battery that had been charging and plugged it into his gun, he seemed satisfied when he heard a whir.

As the team trouped back to the Anomaly, Connor kept his ears sharp.  
As the anomaly came into sight he stopped them “wait a moment,” he said “I hear something.” They all paused and listened, no one could hear anything but Connor seemed to be on edge. He pushed the homemade device into Reid’s arms “when I give the all clear, point this at the anomaly and open the computer, I will be back to program the locking code as soon as I can.” He ran off into the trees taking his metallic looking gun off his back. The BAU group just stood there, slightly mystified.

“Should we go after him and help?” Morgan asked nervously.

“AHHH!” They heard a scream from deep in the trees, “YOU SCALY LIZARD-NECKED PISSPOT! WHO SAID YOU COULD BRING A MATE? GET BACK HERE!” Trees swayed violently and they heard a heavy thud and a “FUCK!” Then crashing footfalls and what sounded like a taser blast. there was another one that fizzled and another “fuck!”

Morgan was ready to run off when they heard the footfalls growing closer. “NO, THIS WAY SHIT FOR BRAINS! LOOK AT ME! I’M SO TASTY!!... GOOD GIRL! Crap! This is the part where you run Connor…”

“Connor!” Morgan shouted

“Fuck! NO! ME! IM HERE!” They watched as Connor came out of the trees panting hard, up close to the shining light “stay away,” he said as quietly as he could while still breaching the distance, “when that’s gone, set that up!” He glanced over at the horrified team. He looked terrible, he was holding his right arm which looked crushed, although it wasn’t bleeding, and his leg had a deep claw scratch bleeding profusely running from his outer hip down to the inside of his ankle on his right leg. He locked eyes on Morgan for a moment, and winked. At moment Morgan knew Connor was about to do something stupidly brave that would save them.

He waited a moment looking behind him then added, “You should be able to lock it, just give me 10.” He ran down the clearing, they watched him take his left hand and wipe up some of the blood running down his leg, his right arm hung limply by his side. He held up the bloody glove for the dinosaur to smell. They heard a horrifying growl coming through the trees.

A bipedal dinosaur that had to be at least 10ft long came blundering through and stood facing Connor, which the BAU realised strategically placed them behind the back of the gargantuan lizard. It roared again and Connor waved his blood soaked glove up in the air and waved it with a grin on his face. “Hey there, Mr, Herrerasaurus, care for something special on the menu tonight?”

Connor was facing down this lizard like he hadn’t a care in the world. Like he had done it hundreds of times before. Which in fact, he may have. They both seemed to stare at the other, locked in place as if time had stopped. Then with a mighty roar the Dino surged forward. Connor dodged, sidestepped the massive lizard and waited until it had seen where he had gone. The FBI agents couldn’t see anything behind the anomaly now, in a flash, both figures were gone.

The BAU ran forward, approaching the plane of light cautiously. Reid set the locking device down and pointed the microphone end at the anomaly. He opened the computer. They waited. Morgan anxiously checked his watch. 3 minutes passed. Morgan walked over to the area where Connor had stood and saw the pool of blood in the dirt. “That’s too much blood.” He said quietly with a concerned look on his face.  
He stepped forward to go through after the kid but Hotch held him back “he said it’s the Triassic era through there. How are you gonna survive?” Hotch asked

“How is he?” Morgan replied angrily

“He has before.” Prentiss pointed out. “He can last until his team comes.”

“Did you see that scratch on his leg? His crushed shoulder?” Morgan said “he won’t last ten minutes let alone three hours.”

“We are untrained in the ways of dealing with creatures.” Hotch replied,

“He did that for us!” Morgan argued ferociously. “He saved us, Hotch!”

“I am well aware.” Hotch said without emotion staring at the anomaly as if willing the kid to return. Finally Hotch turned back to him, “did you also hear Connor shout something about a “mate?” He asked the younger man.

“You don’t think there were two of those things, where there?” Prentiss asked apprehensively.

“I do.” Hotch said. “I think Connor had only enough juice in his gun for one stun.”

“How long does a stun last?” Morgan asked. He looked back at his watch. 6 minutes gone. “Can we call the ARC and ask? What did Connor call that thing?”

“A Herrerasaurus, most paleontologist believe it’s to be an early descendant of a theropod or early saurischian.“ said Reid. He stared at them, “early versions of the velociraptor” Reid tried to explain. This didn’t make Morgan feel any better. “I didn’t get a good look at the gun, so I don’t know the voltage it would generate. Sorry,” he said. “It looks custom, I can’t cross reference.”

“It’s fine,” said Hotch. They all stood there watching the anomaly.

“It’s been ten minutes,” Prentiss quietly noted. “Should we close it now?” Reid went over to the computer and started looking at the code on the computer. He typed a bit

“Wait.” Morgan said. “Just a few more minutes,”

“Morgan, the longer we leave it open the more likely something like what Connor is currently running from will come back through. We need to close it.” Hotch put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

Reid finished typing the computer sequence and the large plane of shattered light became a small sphere of hard fragments.

Nothing could come in or out. Not even Connor.


	2. bleeding out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor's POV, wrong side of the anomaly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suicide ideation in this chapter, do not read if it makes you uncomfortable

Connor was on the wrong side of the anomaly and bleeding. Again. He sighed. By the time he had shaken off the Herrerasaurus, he had been nearly a mile away, and up a large evergreen. He had received a few more scratches in the meantime. God he hated Theropods. Even their ancestors. When he finally got back to the anomaly site, it was locked. He was fairly proud of himself that he managed it, but still, now what. Now he was stuck. 300 million years in the past. But hey, at least it was still there this time, and according to the magnetic pull it was generating, it was still pretty strong. Still, he really needed to stop making this a regular thing. He sat down at the base of a tree and took off his scarf and tied it as far up his leg as he could and tied it as tight as he could with one hand. It wasn’t easy. And it hurt. Hopefully he would be able to find a cave to hole up in so he could light a small fire and cauterised the wound. Then at least he wouldn’t bleed out waiting for Matt and Becker. He couldn’t do anything about his arm though. He was pretty sure it was crushed when the Dino fell on him after he tased it. Apparently he can’t even do that right. Maybe he should just let himself bleed out here. Or let some hungry Dino eat him. Becker and Matt and Abby and Lester were always complaining about how much trouble he caused. And after that thing with Phillip last year, Jess was scared of him, Matt didn’t trust him, Emily wouldn’t pair with him. Even Becker, the love of his life, the one who said he would always be there for him, and always love him, had turned cold and distant in the weeks leading up to his disappearance. 

He sighed and got up, limping now as the adrenaline left his veins, it was eerily quiet. 

What would happen to them at home if he just, never returned? If he just stayed in the Triassic for ever? Or even if he just died here, now. At least he would be remembered by someone as brave and clever at the very end, even if it wasn’t his mates. They would probably tell the FBI everything though. Then how would Morgan look at him? He hated the thought of how that friendly, dashing, Derek Morgan would come to look at him if he were to learn that he helped nearly end the world. Obviously he wasn’t someone fit to be loved anymore. He kept walking. Walking and searching for a place to hide. He knew that even if it seemed quiet now, it didn’t mean it was safe. 

Soon he was grasping at every tree he came across, sweat was pouring down his face. He needed to get this sorted now. He thought. Infection would take route soon enough. He found a large tree whose trunk had been hollowed out and he gratefully clambered inside. He had been picking up flammable debris on his trek, and now pulled them out of his pocket. He cleared a small area on the ground and placed a large flat stone there. Creating a miniature campfire, he piled his flammable debris evenly and high on the stone, making sure to have a lot left over to feed the flames. 

He took the battery from the gun, stripped some wires and fashioned a lighter using the battery for electricity. While the battery wouldn’t hold enough juice for a stunning beam, it should manage a spark. Holding the contraption with one hand was tricky, but after several minutes a branch was lit and he threw it onto the small pyre. 

He built up the fire, just as he did before when he was making his locker out of bits and pieces and held his hand over it to check the heat. The flames were still pretty red, but he couldn’t wait much longer, he pulled out his knife again and stuck it into the flames. He took his glove off his useless right hand and held it in his mouth, then took the hot knife, closed his eyes, getting ready for the pain, and pressed it to the largest part of the open wound on the side of his left hip. He screamed into the glove in his mouth, tears poured out of his eyes. He panted heavily, he felt dizzy, with his last cognitive thought, he turned the stone over and squashed the fire, then he passed out. 

“Connor!” He heard a familiar London accent say, “Stay… baby,” he felt strong arms pulling him out of his hiding place and into his arms

He blinked up at the perfect hair he knew so well, “Action man,” He tried to say with a smile he didn’t know how much of it he got out though, Becker’s eyes looked worried

“Connor!” He heard an American accent say, “Don’t… blood.”

Connor looked over to see Morgan also by his side, brushing his hair back, he looked back at Becker, “two... actions,” Connor was looking behind Becker now. His eyes widened and he tried to stand, “‘m ok,” he muttered, “Gogogo,” looked down to his good hand, his arm was bloody from he had tried to lose the Herrerasaurus, his right arm was still useless, his left leg could barely support any weight. “Hold...off,” he said nodding to himself, with a wry smile, eyes full of challenge watching the 1.5 m Tawa, that was now stalking forward. 

He felt Becker huff make a hand motion. Someone Connor couldn’t see shot the Theropod and it collapsed where it stood. Becker, without saying a word, picked Connor up bridal style and the small group moved towards the anomaly. They were ten feet away when they noticed that a large group of Dilophosauruses were all crowded around the anomaly, investigating it. It was locked again. 

“Becker, we need you mate,” Connor heard an irish accent say. 

“I’ll take him,” said Morgan, there was a pause, then he felt himself being transferred from one pair of arms to another. “Hey there Connor,” Morgan said smiling down at him. 

Connor tried to smile back but he could barely keep his eyes open. “No, you have to stay awake, Co…” he heard frantic shouting, blasts from guns, squealing dinosaurs. “...ke..”

He felt footsteps running over, a different voice shouting, felt more running. “Co..or,” Connor felt like he could just sink into that warm voice and stay there forever. It was so kind, he loved it so much, he felt so loved when he was wrapped in those strong arms. “...UP” the voice was frantic. He hated hearing it like that. “..by… … se… eyes” his eyes felt heavy. There was a giant lump in his chest. He felt like he couldn’t breath. Tears started running down the sides of his cheeks. 

“Sorry,” Connor mumbled, eyes fluttering, but not quite opening. “I’m so sorry Hil,” 

“Calm down, Connor,” Said the man holding him. He couldn’t quite remember it right now. “Panicking will make things worse.” 

“I never said,” Connor choked, he tried to sit up and felt dizzy, he grabbed whatever was closest, familiar arms came up to grab him “Hil,” He turned to the man next to him, kneeling by his side, he knew who it was, even if his eyes were still too heavy to open. He tried to open them again, he saw a snapshot of Becker’s worried hazel eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, his arms supporting Connor. He leaned forward and kissed the captain clumsily. Then leaned his head on the man’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, new dawn. Don’t hate me.” He gave Becker another look dead in the eyes before he said, “I love you, Hilary Becker.” Then Connor slumped forward, he had passed out. 


	3. Save Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor is in the Triassic period and Becker feels helpless
> 
> Becker/Morgan POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lots of feels

When the ARC team had reached the anomaly they found it locked. Matt introduced themselves to the BAU, and Hotch did the same. “JJ and Rossi are still clearing up the case.” He tried to explain. “We normally have a few more than this.”

“You said on the phone you had a Herrerasaurus down somewhere?” Matt said after they switched the makeshift anomaly locker to one from the ARC. 

“We aren’t sure, we haven’t actually looked.” Said Prentiss, “It was more of just listening to Connor’s side of the conversation.”

“Let me guess yelling at it, yeah?” Abby asked 

Morgan smirked, “Yeah, trying to provoke it like none other.”

“He was,” Abby said simply. “My guess is he found it dangerously close to you lot, or other civilians, so he provoked it in order to keep it away.” 

“We only had time to charge his gun up for one shot.” Reid said. 

Becker didn’t look pleased. “Where is he?”

The BAU stared at the Anomaly. 

Abby turned to Matt. “We have to get him, or you do, or Becker does.”

“We will get him, Abby,” Matt said, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

“He came through there, right?” Emily Merchant said, “Did he say when it went to?”

“Late Triassic.” Reid said. 

“He said he had been there for the last month.” Morgan mentioned. Then he turned to Emily. “He also said that he stayed with a person named Emily for a few months but it was before she was married.” 

Emily smacked her head, “I knew I recognised him when I met him.” Matt and Abby looked at her. “My family were Merchants, hence my name, yeah? Well when I was a kid, probably around 10, a young man came to stay with us for a few months as an apprentice. I totally forgot about him until now. When I met Connor he seemed strangely familiar, but I met him two years ago, he didn’t stay with my family until a few months ago, so he was younger than I had remembered him to be.” 

Prentiss, Hotchner and Morgan looked at eachother. “Anyone following this?” She asked. 

Reid spoke up, “I think what she is trying to say is that when Connor disappeared from London six months ago, one of the places he lived in was…” He studied Emily’s dimenor, “Victorian? England.” She nodded with a smile. “He stayed there until he could leave again. And he stayed with your family when you were young. But you didn’t recognise him when you first met him a few years ago because it hadn’t happened for him yet and he was older when he stayed with you.” 

She shrugged. “Basically.” 

Abby, Matt and Becker seemed to take this in stride. “Timelines, right?” Abby and Emily laughed. 

“How injured is he?” Becker asked. 

“Why would you automatically assume he is injured.” Spencer asked

“Is he not?” Abby said surprised.

“No, he is,” Morgan said, with a sigh, “it’s pretty bad. Although I couldn’t tell the extent of it from where we stood. All I could see for sure was that he had a long gash going from his left hip, to his inner ankle, and he couldn’t use his right arm from his shoulder down.” 

“GODDAMNIT CONNOR!” Becker shouted, turning away. 

“He’s not angry,” Abby tried to explain, “He’s just really worried.” Becker paced in front of the.    
  
“Anderson, we need to get him,” Becker said to Matt.

“We will,” Matt assured him. “Get one of your SFs to find the dino and stand guard. We will deal with it when we get back. Abby, Becker, Grab a few of your SFs and a field medic and we will find him.” 

“I’m coming too.” Morgan said firmly. 

“You don’t know what is out there,” Matt said, “No Civilians.” 

“Do I look like a Civilian?” Morgan asked with malice. “I was in the marines, I worked as a Local Law Enforcement Officer, and I’m FBI, technically this is still our jurisdiction, I’m going.” Matt sighed. 

“Fine, but if something with teeth comes along, stay back ok?” Matt tossed Morgan one of the futuristic guns. “Three settings, low for small creatures, and so forth. Highest setting is rated to a T-rex, Don’t use that one. Nothing that big when we are going. 

Matt opened the Anomaly, then looked at Reid, “You can operate this yeah? Close it behind us and give us 90 minutes. No more, no less.” Reid nodded. The team walked through the anomaly and into the late Triassic period.

Morgan’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit” he said in disbelief. 

Abby walked alongside him and patted him on the shoulder, “mad right?” 

“Abby!” Matt called, she ran forward. Morgan followed close behind. Becker stared at him with distrust. “You are the only person who knows what Connor would do in this situation.” Matt said. “What’s the first thing he would do?”

“Depends on if something is chasing him. If it is, he’d lose it first. Then find somewhere he can’t be found or eaten.” She said “Then try to deal with any life threatening injuries.” 

“How?” Becker asked, fearing he knew the answer. 

“Cauterisation,” She promptly replied. “When we didn’t have tools or sewing kits, it was the most efficient and effective way to stop bleeding.” 

“But it can lead to infection if not taken care of correctly,” Morgan put in. 

“Yes,” Abby said, “But if the wound is that serious and it is a question of an infection that could kill him in a few days vs bleeding out which could take hours, or even minutes, he is going to take the infection.” She said plainly. “He also knows help is on its way. So he will probably be holding on for that.” 

They looked around and saw a thin stream of blood in a dotted line, the dots far apart, and large tracks following them. “He was running from something,” Matt concluded. 

“That’s why he missed the 10 minute window,” said Morgan, understanding, “He couldn’t get away”. 

They followed the trail until it led them to a tree. Going back down the tree the blood flow was heavier. They saw a small pool, and a scrap of cloth. “That was the scarf he was wearing today.” Morgan identified.

“He tried to make a torniquete.” One of the SF’s put in. The SF was carrying a med bag. “I taught him well.” There was a small note of pride in the man’s voice. The blood flow trail was lighter now, and then -

  
  


Becker stopped dead   
“CONNOR!” Abby gasped, she located him lying unconscious in a large hollowed out tree trunk, a knife in one hand, his left arm scratched and covered in nettles. He had always been too thin, and now looked even thinner than when Becker last saw him, although he did have more muscles too. He was white as a sheet, his face was covered in sweat. One of his gloves was still loosely in his mouth. 

“Connor,” Becker said, running forward and gathering his boyfriend up in his arms, pulling him out of the tree. He felt for a pulse, it was weak but it was there. “Stay with me baby.”

Connor’s eyes fluttered open for a moment at Becker’s voice, “Action man,” came the reply, so weak Becker nearly missed it. He saw a dimple shining on Connor’s cheek and knew the tech was trying to smile. Becker worried in silence.

“Connor!” Agent Morgan said, crouching down beside them, brushing Connor’s hair back. Becker wanted to growl at the agent next to him. “Don’t try to talk, you’ve lost a lot of blood,”

It didn’t seem like Connor could hear them, he looked over at Agent Morgan, then back at Becker, “Two… acts” They heard him say. Morgan looked puzzled. Then Connor’s eyes opened wide and he feebly tried to push himself out of Becker’s arms. He didn’t seem to realise that he hadn’t gotten very far when he said “‘m ok” Then “gogogo” he looked down at himself and seemed to realise the state he was in. “Ho … off” he was muttering. Morgan had seen the dinosaur behind Becker a few minutes ago but both of them seemed startled and frightened at Connor’s reaction to it. It’s like he wanted them to leave him there to die. Becker let out a breath in exasperation. 

With a simple hand motion from Becker, Matt took down the dinosaur. All the tension left from Connor’s body and he relaxed, leaning into Becker’s chest. They looked at his left leg. It was still bleeding, but Abby was right, the top part of the cut, where it had been largest was unceremoniously wrestled into closing with a hot knife. It wasn’t pretty, and it looked painful. Connor moaned in pain as Becker went to take his right arm. As gently as he could Becker picked up Connor and carried him back towards the anomaly site. Morgan looked at his watch, they still had a half hour until it was set to open for them. 

Ten feet away the party stopped. There was a problem. Large Dilophosauruses were blocking their way home. At least half a dozen all standing 3 m long at least. It didn’t seem like they really cared about them, but they were highly interested in the shining ball of light that the humans needed to get to.

“Becker, we need you mate,” Matt called from the front. 

“I’ll take him,” said Morgan, the American agent sank to his knees and carefully took the injured scientist from Becker. “Hey there Connor,” Morgan said, giving a small smile to the younger man.

Morgan saw him attempt to smile then his eyes droop and muscles relax. “No, you have to stay awake, I know you’re tired, Connor, Connor!” Morgan stroked the boy’s scarred cheek and wondered faintly how many scars he had on his body, he would like to find out one day, then mentally kicking himself he looked up at the team and the group of downed dinosaurs. “Matt, Becker!” He called

Becker ran over to see Connor limp in Agent Morgan’s arms. He felt his heart stop. “Ditzy!” he practically screamed. Then he knelt by the geek “Connor, please wake up. WAKE UP!!” Ditzy came over and started checking Connor’s leg. “Baby, please, show me those beautiful brown eyes” Abby was by their side, Becker heard her crying besides him. Then he saw tears running down Connor’s cheeks and his heart nearly broke again. 

“I can’t do anything.” Ditzy said in remorse. “His main ailment right now is the bloodloss, and there is nothing I can do.”

10 minutes left. 

“Sorry,” Connor mumbled, eyes fluttering, but not quite opening. “I’m so sorry Hil,” Becker turned his attention back to Connor, whose breath started to speed up. 

“Calm down, Connor,” said Agent Morgan, who seemed to have dealt with quite a few trauma victims before. “Panicking will make things worse.” 

Connor couldn’t seem to hear anyone. “I never said,” Connor choked, he tried to sit up, Becker’s arms shot out to support him, “Hil,” He turned directly to face Becker, even with his eyes closed. Connor’s eyes fluttered for a moment, then remained closed. Tears were pouring from the captain’s eyes now. Connor leaned forward and his face came in contact with Becker’s cheek. Then leaned his head on the man’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, new dawn. Don’t hate me.” He pulled back with what seemed like enormous effort and gave Becker a drowsy bloodshot look and said, “I love you, Hilary Becker.” Then Connor slumped forward against Becker’s shoulder, he had passed out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same cliffy as the previous chapter. Sorry. but to be fair, you got them all at once.
> 
> Please leave Kudos and Comments. Should Connor survive or not? I haven't decided how cruel I want to be yet.


	4. Out of the Anomaly and into the Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the teams meet at the hospital and talk  
> Becker and Abby trade secrets about Connor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Discussion of past rape 
> 
> Any mention of real shows or books or anything is entirely inconsequential.

Becker took Connor from Agent Morgan, “Ditzy, Please tell me he is still alive.” He didn’t want to jostle him too much so he couldn’t check his breathing. He couldn’t feel anything against his neck against the cold sweats of Connor’s forehead. 

“Just barely,” Ditzy said.

“How much longer do we have to wait?” Abby shouted, tears coursing down her face. 

“1 more minute” Matt said, watching the anomaly, pacing with anxiety. 

The anomaly bloomed open and Becker got up, Connor secure in his arms, and ran forward, the rest of the group hot on his heels. 

“We need a med evac now.” Becker said, not noticing the ambulance already there. 

“Oh My God, Connor!” Emily said, turning to Matt, and hugging him. 

“Considering the amount of blood that was flowing when he went through 4 hours and 31 minutes ago,” Reid said matter of factly, “We assumed that you would need some sort of medical transportation, if he figured out how to slow the bleeding on his own while over there.” Prentiss Hotch and Reid paled as they saw Connor’s ghostly white form being lowered onto the stretcher.

“He did,” Becker said, “I think he has an infection, and he is still losing blood. Also, something happened to his right arm.” The paramedics nodded as Ditzy got in with them.

“I’m his field medic,” he said, as the door closed behind them and they were rushed to the closest hospital. 

“Holy fuck…” Becker said, slumping down to rest against one of the rented Jeeps. Abby put her hand on his shoulder. 

“Becker?” Jess asked through the comms. “Is everything ok over there?” 

“Becker, you should go to the hospital, you and Abs wait for him, we can deal with the mess over here.” Matt said. Emily nodded. “We will meet you there. Jess, no, it’s not so good, I’m not sure if Connor is going to make it through this one.” The ARC team all heard Jess gasp and choke back a cry. 

“What should I do?” She said. 

“Tell Lester that Connor is in the hospital and that we may be staying a few days.” Matt said to her, “Or at least Becker, Connor, Abby and Finn will, Ok?” 

“Thanks Matt,” Becker said, “Come on Abby.” 

“How about we drive you?” Reid said. “It looks like you won’t fit everyone in one car if you two take the other. And we have two. Well three, Rossi and JJ have the third.” 

Abby smiled, “That would be great, but we don’t want to trouble you.”

“It’s no trouble,” Prentiss assured her. “We like Connor, he built that thing in ten minutes flat, and he saved our lives. Plus he is kinda charming.” She pointed at the makeshift locker.

“It took him about three days to work out how to make the original.” Becker said with a grin.

“To be fair, how long do you think it would take a normal person?” Abby asked. 

“True, I don’t think anyone normal could do what he does.” Becker said 

“He seemed pretty normal to me.” Reid said, slightly offended. 

“I think they mean he is a genius, pretty boy, like you” Morgan said with a laugh. 

“It’s kinda amazing that you said he was charming though,” Abby informed them, “he was a huge antisocial geek when we first met, Barely said two coherent words to me that weren’t about the anomalies.”

“I will help Matt and Emily are almost done with the Herrasasaur,” Hotch said fumbling over the name of the dinosaur, “I will inform Rossi and JJ where everyone is and meet you guys at the hospital.” 

“Herrerasaurus” Reid and Abby corrected him.

“Whatever.” 

“Jason is helping too, tell him I’ve gone ahead.” Abby said. “SF Finn,” 

They all got in the car. It was a tight squeeze with the five of them, but they wanted to keep talking. Morgan started the engine. 

“When we went to gather parts for the locker he convinced the manager to give them to us by convincing him that aliens were on their way.” Morgan laughed. 

“That's not the way he told it,” Reid said. 

“Oh my God, are you going to eidetic memory and eidetic memory?” Emily said, rolling her eyes. 

“Does Connor have an eidetic memory?” Morgan asked. 

“He has never said as such, and we never asked.” Abby said, “But something like an eidetic memory or a photographic memory would make sense. He seems to read a lot and retain everything he reads.” 

“Then why does he rewatch that sci-fi stuff all the time?” Becker asked

“Because he can.” Abby said with a grin. 

“Just because you have an eidetic memory, doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy rewatching your favorite movies and television shows,” Reid said “Watching something is about the experience of being in the moment. Which is what live theatre hinges on. Liveness and that one performance will never be the same as the next.” 

“He can seem to quote you word for word and can keep track of the time and date of all of you arguments.” Abby said to Becker. “I should know, I hear enough about them…”

“He does the same with you, you know,” Becker shot back. 

“And how many books did he check out of the library when you went the week before he went missing?” She asked. 

“I think about two dozen.” Becker laughs. “He reads while he rewatches movies, while he is on the computer.” 

“How often do you go to the library?” Reid asked curiously 

“Once or twice a week.” Becker said, “When we have the time.”

“How many of those books were in English this time?” Abby asked. 

“About a third were in English, I could understand about half of those. It was all way too academic for me” 

Prentiss laughed. “No wonder you guys were getting on so well, Reid, This kid is a younger version of you!” 

“More geeky and techy maybe.” Spencer said. “And seriously, only two dozen books in a week, I could do twice that in half that time.” 

“He decided it was a good time to learn Chek, so about a third of those books were in Chek.” Becker explained. “He is good in Russian apparently, but the other slavic languages he hasn’t learned yet.”

“How many languages does he know?” Morgan asked. 

“You got me.” Becker said. “I know he can read way more than he can speak, but I think he can speak at least the romance languages, Russian, and a few asian languages, Like Korean and Japanese.”

“He did that for the Anime” Abby said laughing. “Actually, I think he learned it  _ while _ watching Anime.”

“He also likes a lot of the futuristic K-dramas,” Becker added, “Which is how he learned Korean.” 

“He and I used to binge some together.” Abby confessed. “I love a good K-drama, he prefers the ones with more fighting and supernatural stuff. But the star-crossed lovers ones are my favs.”

“Which one is your favorite?” Prentiss asked. 

“You watch K-Drama?” Abby asked excitedly. 

“Of course,” Emily said with relish.

“Strong arm Bong-soo!” 

“I loved that one, how cool would it be to have that sort of power?” Abby and Emily continued talking about K-drama for a while while the guys sat not knowing what to say. 

“I should call Garcia and tell her what happened.” Morgan said finally as they approached the hospital. 

“Are you sure?” Prentiss asked. “She doesn’t know him.” 

“Connor said they might, actually.” Morgan said. 

“How would that work.” Reid asked, getting out of the car. 

“When I told him about how Garcia was recruited, he said that one of the hackers in his online friend group disappeared around that time, and it was rumoured that they went fed. It was probably her.” They walked into the waiting room and Becker and Abby went off to ask about Connor.

“He didn’t mention her gender?” asked Emily.

“He specifically referred to the person as a ‘they’ and said that on the forum people didn’t have names, or races, or ages, or genders. It was just skill and minds.” 

“Maybe Garcia would recognise Connor’s coding.” Prentiss suggested. “Should we send it to her and ask if she thinks she knows him?”

“Couldn’t hurt.” Reid said.

“Unless he doesn’t make it,” Prentiss said in a low voice. 

“He is in surgery.” Becker said, as they returned, face pale

“They don’t know yet if he’s going to make it.” Abby added. “He lost too much blood.” 

“Let’s wait to talk to Garcia until after we know he will at least live.” Prentiss said to Morgan. He nodded. 

Twenty minutes later Matt, Emily, Hotch and Finn turned up. Abby ran into Finn’s arms with tears running down her face. “Any news?” Matt asked Becker

“Not yet,” He said as he paced the waiting room. 

“You got the Herrerasaurus back ok?” Abby asked Finn

“It took some doing, but she is back where she belongs.” Finn replied with a smile

“‘Some doing?’” Emily repeated with an exasperated sigh, “That’s one way to put it.”

“The other way is?” Prentiss asked, lips quirking in a small smile,

“A borrowed tractor, two tractor beds and a crane” Hotch replied. Reid burst out laughing. “I think I prefer my opponents to be human sized.”

“Herrerasaurus just a bit too much for you there Hotch?” Morgan laughed

“We have had bigger.” Matt shrugged. “The T-Rex was a nightmare to figure out how to deal with.” Finn groaned in memory. 

“Then that Spineosaurus,” Abby put in, “Sorry for that by the way.” She blushed sheepishly. 

“We dealt with it,” Finn said, “Don’t apologize for coming home.”

“A Spineosaurus followed Connor and I back when we returned from the Cretaceous” Abby explained to the BAU. “They are highly territorial, and can follow the scent of prey for miles,”

“I guess I would take a downed dino any day,” Prentiss rumanised, “rather than a giant one trying to eat me. If the choice is between tons of dead weight and trying to keep that giant lizard from eating you?” 

“Sometimes the latter is easier,” Matt said ruefully. “But it’s far more dangerous. You are much more likely to have someone end up somewhere like this afterward.” 

“It helps when you don’t go at it alone.” Becker put in. “Normally there is a team of us to help him out.” 

“I should have helped,” Morgan said, furious with himself. 

“You would have made everything worse,” Finn put in. “Former soldier or not, you have to be specially trained to deal with these sorts of jobs.”

“How did you all get into this, anyway?” Hotch asked, “It seems like an odd job.” 

“It started with Professor Nick Cutter, Stephen Hart, Connor and Me,” Abby started. “I don’t really know the details from their side, all I know is that I was working at a Zoo, I specialise in reptile behavior, and was called out to someone’s house for an exotic pet retrieval. The exotic pet turned out to be a coelurosauravus, named Rex, that a boy had found in the Forest of Dean, near where he lived. I asked him to show me where he found Rex, and well, Rex wasn’t the only dinosaur that had come through. And that’s how I met Cutter, Stephen, and Connor. Oliver Leek was there too, from the Home Office. 

“For a while, We were called any time an unusual creature turned up, or someone died in a mysterious circumstance. It took some time before Cutter and Connor figured out the link between radio waves and the Anomalies, after that Connor was able to make his ADD, The Anomaly Detection Device, so we could know as soon as an Anomaly appeared.” 

“Where do the rest of you fit in? And what happened to Cutter and Stephen?” Prentiss asked

“....” Abby wiped tears from her eyes, and Finn pulled her in close. “They died.” She said. “Stephen died in Leek’s Menagerie, Cutter died at the hands of his wife.” 

“His wife?” Morgan asked, shocked. 

“She went mad after traveling through the anomalies for 8 years.” Becker tried to explain. “I started with some of my men, Finn included, after Stephen died. Lester thought we needed more security after what happened with Leek.” 

“Lester’s been overseeing the project from the beginning.” Abby put in. “Sarah was brought in by Cutter shortly before he died, She and Connor figured out the electricity thing with the Anomalies.” 

“Danny came in shortly after.” Becker said, rolling his eyes. 

“Don’t roll your eyes at him,” Abby punched his arm. “He got trapped in the Pliocene for us. Oh, I forgot about Jenny, She came on for a short time to help with PR, cover stories and stuff. She left after nearly freezing to death though.” 

“Only one to leave voluntarily.” Becker sighed sadly. 

“Sarah was not your fault,” Abby said quietly, giving him a pat on the shoulder. 

“What about Anderson and Merchant?” Hotch asked.

“Right, So things happened, Helen tried to destroy the human race, normal stuff, you know” Abby went on, “So Danny, Connor and I went to stop her. We started by traveling to the future, and ended up getting trapped in the past. Connor and I in the Cretaceous, Danny in the Pliocene.”

“That’s when Jess and I were recruited.” Matt chimed in. “Jess is our analyst, she is still in London. I became leader of the team, and things were running smoothly for about 8 months when Sid and Nancy turned back up.” 

“Don’t you start calling us that too!” Abby cried

“I showed up after the team had been running a while.” Emily added. “I had been surviving with a group of people traveling through the portals for about 3 years when I came out and met the ARC. As we’ve previously established, I disappeared in 1868. Just after I was married. I tried to go back when we found a portal, but my husband tried to have me committed. I just wasn’t the same obedient upper class wife anymore.” She smirked. Prentiss snorted. 

“So wait, did Connor mean when he said new dawn?” Morgan asked 

“It’s not important.” Becker said. “It was shut down, no one was hurt.”

“Except Phillip.” Matt pointed out

“Phillip deserved it.” Becker growled, “Not just for starting the damn thing.”

“So this whole project was started by chance?” Spencer asked. 

“Basically.” Abby said, with a shrug,

“And you and Connor are the only two from the original team?” He continued. 

“Yep.” She replied slightly sadly. “It’s a pretty dangerous job.”

Morgan, Hotch and Prentiss looked towards the belly of the hospital. “We could tell.” Prentiss allowed. 

“Which is one of the reasons it would have not been a good idea for you to help,” Abby said to Morgan. “Connor has been doing this for six years now, plus he has been trapped in the Cretaceous and Triassic for an extended length of time. He knows how to avoid a fight with a dinosaur if he needs to, he also knows how to egg one on. He knew the risks. Blimey, he wrote our damned Creature Database.” 

“She’s right,” Becker put in, cutting Morgan off before he could speak. “When he found the dinosaurs they were probably too close to you lot to do anything other than lure away. You interfering would just have made things more difficult and more dangerous.” 

Morgan crossed his arms and scowled. He hated being told not to act. But he admitted that he would have no idea what he would do if he was faced with something that large and with that number of teeth. Probably freeze. 

Rossi and JJ came through the doors, “Well, we cleared up the case.” JJ said. “Wasn’t sure how to pass off, ‘got eaten by a dinosaur in the Triassic’, so I just said that he got attacked by a bear.”

“Far more plausible.” Abby said with a grin. 

“Oh,” JJ said, noticing the newcomers, “You must be the ARC, Connor told us about you, I’m SSA Jennifer Jareau, but you can call me JJ” she held out her hand to shake the hand of Matt and the team.

“I’m SSA Dave Rossi,” Rossi also held out his hand. “Connor is a very bright young man.”

“David Rossi?” Abby said, “Connor talks about you all the time. He must have gone mental meeting you. I’m Abby, his best friend and former flatmate,”

“He was rather enthusiastic,” Rossi confirmed, laughing. 

“I’m team leader, Matt Anderson,” Matt introduced himself, “This is Emily Merchant, Abby Maintland, Captain Becker, and Lt Finn.”

“Good to meet you all.” JJ said with a smile. “What happened anyway? We seemed to have missed it.”

“A Dinosaur got out of the Anomaly before it was locked, and Connor got hurt getting it back through” Matt summed up. ”He was over there for a while waiting for us.”

“Bleeding out…” Becker growled under his breath. Abby grabbed his hand and squeezed 

“He will be ok,” She said to him, “He is far too stubborn to let this be his end.”

“But he’s right Abby,” Becker murmured, “I was still kind of angry with him when he disappeared. We all were. I never got a chance to tell him that I forgave him. Then when I remember that day, I don’t think it was an accident.”

Abby blinked. “You think he meant to go through?” She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the teams that were gathered in the waiting room. “What do you mean?” 

“He laughed over the phone and said the triceratops just snagged him when he was standing there,” Becker said, “But he wasn’t anywhere near the Anomaly last I saw him, which was literally minutes before.” 

“What do you think happened?” She asked, frowning

“I dunno, Something spooked her, maybe, she went off course,” Becker tried to remember “Last I saw, Connor had pulled a thick leafy branch off a tree and was running towards the Triceratops. He may have sensed that she was going to run towards us or something.”

“And he baited her through the Anomaly,” Abby sighed, “Sounds like Connor. Much more than getting distracted and caught off guard.”

“That sounds like the OLD Connor.” Becker said ruefully. Abby nodded. 

“He has been on high alert since we got back from the Cretaceous,” She replied. “I don’t think he can help it. I can’t either, to be honest.” 

“He keeps a knife under his pillow,” Becker commented. “He won’t go anywhere without it. He sharpens it when he is watching a movie, if he isn’t on his computer. He has ended up pulling out his knife because of a dream more times than I care to remember. Any noise at night will make him pull out the knife. I have even heard him growl and cover me from whatever he thinks is out there.” 

“The Cretaceous is an unfriendly place,” Abby said without surprise. “I keep a knife under my pillow too. Finn hasn’t mentioned any growling, but I will ask.” She grinned wolfishly. Then she sobered. “Look, Connor knows we love him, he knows he screwed up, but he also knows that we will love him no matter how much he screws up, he also knows that he can’t be completely to blame for what happened with Phillip. He was used by someone he admired.” Becker growled. Abby looked at him. “I’m missing something, aren’t I?” 

“I walked passed Connor’s lab one day to see him held down on his table, and Phillip was fucking him.” Becker hissed

Abby gasped. “Was it consensual?” She whispered. 

Becker scowled. “Didn’t look like he enjoyed it, but it also didn’t look like it was the first time.” 

“Phillip was raping him on a regular basis?” Abby asked, “Why didn’t he say anything? How could he still TRUST him?”

“That’s one of the reasons I was angry with him,” Becker grunted. “He didn’t tell me, and he continued working for the fucking rapist,” 

“You know that in cases like this, WILL to live is often one of the determining factors, right?” Abby asked. “Connor’s self esteem has never been that great, he’s good at faking it, but he once confessed to me that he was  _ suicidal _ in high school.” Becker blanched. 

“What are you saying?” Becker rasped. 

“He has been off his meds for six months, and if he still thinks we hate him because of what happened with Phillip, more importantly, if he still thinks YOU are still mad at him,” Abby tried to be gentle, “He may not think he has a place at the ARC anymore. It could be the thing that makes him give up. You know we are his family.” 

“FUCK” Becker punched a wall and sank down into a chair, as tears rolled down his face. 

Matt, Emily, and Finn hurried over. “What’s going on?” Matt queried. 

“They are going to kick us out if you don’t stay calm, Becker,” Finn said, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“How can I stay calm when the man I love is in surgery and may not even have the will to stay alive?” He asked ruefully. 

Matt, Emily and Finn looked at him, then at Abby, “Long story,” She answered to the unasked question.

Finally a surgeon came out and looked around, “Connor Temple?” He said.

Becker shot up and nearly ran to the man in the scrubs. “Yes,” 

“Are you family?” He looked over the ARC Team, the BAU was standing off to the side, 

“As close as it comes,” Matt said, “I’m his team leader,” he patted Becker, “Lover and medical proxy.” The surgeon nodded. 

“I will try to keep this simple, He has major blood loss due to a deep incision into the left leg starting at the outer hip and radiating inward and ending at the inner ankle, there is an incision across the back from the left shoulder to the right hip, the right arm from collarbone to fingers have been crushed and the left arm has small cuts about three cm in length along the outside. He has a serious infection due to the 2nd degree burn at the top of the incision at the hip which we have treated, and it probably saved his life as it closed one of the larger breaks in the blood vessel. We repaired the blood vessels in the leg and he received 50 stitches along his leg, back and arm. The problem is the blood loss and his right arm. We transfused 3 units so far and his pulse is still quite weak. The extensive blood loss took a toll on his heart. We will continue transfusing for a while, but he may not wake up. If he wakes up, we will decide what to do with his arm.” 

Becker cringed at the “If” they used for the waking up. 

“Can we see him?” Abby asked hopefully

“He suffered from two cardiac arrests on his way over, and another on the table, so we are moving him into the ICU. There is a chance we may need to put him into a medically induced coma for a few days. But we will see once he has enough blood.” The surgeon looked at them, “Whatever happened to this guy, it has happened before, his body is covered in both well healed and poorly healed scars. He looks like he has something that looks like a bite on one leg and a puncture in his side. As his family, look after him, he will get himself killed if he keeps going like this. Two people can see him at a time while he is unconscious, a nurse will come get you when he is settled and ready to take visitors.” He walked away. 

“The puncture is new,” Abby said thoughtfully,

“When did he get bitten?” Emily asked, 

“Cretaceous,” Abby said simply. They all nodded in understanding. “Nothing big, just a Bambiraptor, but it was pretty vicious.” 

“Connor must have loved that.” Finn said with a small smile. 

“Couldn’t stop talking about it.” Abby confirmed. “Drove me nuts... It was pretty cute though, up until the biting.” 

Matt went over to the BAU team, “You guys don’t have to stay,” he said to Hotch. “They don’t even know if he will wake up.”

Morgan went white. “What do you mean, ‘If’”

“They said he lost too much blood and it took a toll on his heart,” Matt explained stoically. “All we can do is wait and see.” 

“We will head out,” Hotch said, shaking Matt’s hand. “We have other cases that need our attention. Keep us updated on his condition, if you could.” 

“Of course.” Matt agreed. 

“Hotch, we can’t just  _ leave _ ,” Morgan implored. 

“There is nothing we can do for him,” Hotch replied. “He has his team, we have ours.” He turned to Morgan, and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, “I know you like him, I do too, he is a good kid, you probably like him more because he reminds you of Reid, right? And Garcia? But he is not our family.  _ This _ is. This is what we do, this is our team. They will let us know what happens. Until then, we have a job to do.” Morgan crossed his arms and looked away. 

“He is in there because of risks he took for us,” Morgan muttered. “I think it’s only right for us to be here when he wakes up.” 

Hotch thought for a moment. “We leave tomorrow, ok?” Morgan nodded, slightly relieved. Hotch turned to the rest of the team, “Is that ok with you guys?”

“I’m with Morgan,” Reid said, “What would he think if we weren’t here when he woke up, considering what he did for us?”

“Same,” Prentiss said, “I can’t get his screams out of my head.” 

Reid smirked, “When he called the Herrerasaurus a ‘Lizard Necked Piss-Pot.’” 

“That will never not be funny,” Prentiss laughed. 

“It wasn’t super funny in the moment,” Hotch said, cracking a small smile now

“That’s because we had just heard him scream bloody murder,” Morgan replied, remembering that moment earlier in the day. 

“It’s true, after hearing someone obviously get injured, stupid nicknames have less of an effect” Reid mused. 

“He called the dinosaur a what?” Rossi asked, sipping his coffee. 

“Lizard necked pisspot and asked ‘who said you could bring a mate?’” Reid answered immediately. “And then a few minutes later he said ‘I’m over here you shit-for-brains’.”

“What the hell?” JJ asked, surprised, “it’s like he was asking it to eat him.”

“According to Abby,” Prentiss started, “That’s exactly what he was doing. If it was getting too close to civilians, or say, us, he would have lured it away by making himself the target. Normally, it would work if he had a team to help, or a charged battery pack for his gun.”

“But he had neither.” Reid continued. “We were only able to charge his gun’s pack so he could down one of the two Herrerasauruses, so he decided to lure the other one through the Anomaly and told me to give him ten minutes, then lock it behind him. Which we did, and he didn’t return.”

“You still locked it?” JJ said slightly horrified. 

“The risks were pretty high if I didn’t.” Reid huffed. “You didn’t see this thing, it was massive. We don’t need any of those wandering around New Jersey.”

“Let’s just hope the kid comes out of it ok.” Rossi said with a slight grimace at the story. “Obviously he is tougher than he looks.”

“That’s for sure,” Morgan said, “Did you know he cauterised his own wound while he was over there? With his knife, made a fire and just set the hot blade over the worst part of his cut. We found him passed out with the knife still in his hand. I have no idea how long he was like that before we found him.” Prentiss winced. 

“That must have been torture.” She groaned. 

“Better than bleeding out.” Reid said.

“If the infection doesn’t kill him.” JJ noted. 

“He has to survive the blood loss to be killed by infection,” Reid pointed out. “And infection kills you slower, more chance of being able to be cured 

“Good point.” JJ said thoughtfully

“That’s what Abby said when we were over there,” Morgan recalled. “She said that he would try to staunch the bleeding, and when we brought up the risks of infection caused by cauterisation she seemed well aware, and said that if it was that or bleeding out, Connor would choose infection. As there is a better chance of being saved.”

“The fact that she said it so casually makes you wonder how many times they had to do that over there.” Prentiss thought aloud.

“I think you mean ‘back then’” Hotch commented. 

“Rips in time,” Morgan mused. “Kinda alters your perception of reality, doesn’t it?”

“No kidding,” Prentiss stood contemplating, “If I hadn’t been there myself and seen Connor run out of one, and back through and a freaking DINOSAUR…? I still wouldn’t believe it.”

“I went through one and I could still hardly believe it,” Morgan added, thinking back. 

“Why did you insist on going back anyway, Morgan? It seemed they had all the help they needed.” Reid asked curiously “You aren’t exactly trained for that sort of thing.” 

Morgan flushed slightly. “The kid is pretty cute, I wouldn’t blame you if you had a crush on him,” JJ teased lightly. “I hate to break it to you though, I’m pretty sure he’s taken.” 

“Shut up, of course that’s not why, I was just worried.” Morgan was obviously trying to think of a way out. “And yeah he is seeing someone, the Captain. Besides, he lives in another country, it’s not like anything could ever happen even if I was attracted to him, which I’m not, and he was single, which he’s not.”

“Me thinks thou doth protest too much,” Prentiss teased. 

“I don’t understand what is happening.” Reid stated, flatly. 

“Morgan is interested in Connor.” JJ explained.

“Am not!” The man in question defended, “I just think that intelligence is attractive.” Morgan looked everywhere but at Reid. 

“Wait, is there someone else who you also find attractive?” JJ prodded, grinning.

Reid stared hard at Morgan, trying to work out what he was thinking, suddenly very nervous himself. The young genius wondered if it was true and his heart ached. Connor was much more outgoing than he was, and much more sociable, less awkward, more attractive, he had many attributes that Reid lacked. But from what he could tell, Connor was also very much in love with someone else. Did that mean he had a chance? Reid looked at Morgan to see the older man’s eyes dart away. 

Hotch and Rossi stood and watched the four younger team members, “It seems pretty fearless, going after that thing and then straight back to where he had escaped from,” Rossi remarked, “Especially if he was that injured before going back.” 

Hotch nodded, “Makes you wonder what other things the kid has seen to make this so manageable,” he commented. “We chase serial killers and kidnappers, but after a while even the bad ones seem mundane. Especially after the truly awful people we have caught, like Frank, and Foyette, you know. I’m guessing it’s the same with this team. Once you have been doing it a while it’s only the really bad ones that stick out.” Rossi contemplated for a moment. 

A nurse came out, “Family of Temple, Connor?” She asked, looking around. Captain Becker stood up immediately and Abby stepped forward with him, followed by Matt, Emily and Finn. “I am only able to allow two of you in to see him right now.” She said apologetically, “He is still unconscious and too much of a disturbance would interfere with his recovery. The ARC team let Abby and Becker go first without a word. The friends followed the nurse into the back and they disappeared. 

* * *

The BAU left the hospital that night for dinner and made Matt promise to call one of them as soon as Connor awoke. They went back to the hotel, exhausted, Morgan anxiously waiting for the phone to ring. It wasn’t until mid morning the next day that Hotch received the call. Morgan, Reid and Preniss had already gone to the hospital, but JJ had to stay behind to work the cover story with Hotch again, because the unit chief wasn’t satisfied with it. Hotch called Morgan at the hospital and told him the news, and let him know that more visitors were allowed in Connor’s room now. The FBI agent quickly left the waiting room and wandered the halls to where the young ARC agent was recovering.

Morgan was approaching Connor’s room when he heard a loud voice coming from it. He stopped, not wanting to interrupt. “Are you fucking serious Connor?” Abby shouted. “How long? And don’t try to deny it, Becker saw him on you."

“You can’t be serious,” Connor sounded like he had been punched in the gut. “Hil  _ saw? _ Fuck!” Morgan was about to turn away when he heard the next thing Abby said 

Abby’s voice turned soft and soothing. “Why didn’t you tell anyone Conn? We could have helped you? Why did you fucking trust that raping prick after what he did?”

“I don’t know, he was my idol.” Connor’s voice got very small. “I guess I just didn’t want to believe it was the same person.”

“How long?” She said abruptly

There was an awkward silence, Morgan tried to restrain himself from bursting into the kid’s room. “You remember when Philip made the suggestion to humanely kill all the creatures in the menagerie?” There was a disgusted grunt. “Well, the day before he had asked me to run a security check on the system, and Rex was out, so the system shut down. It nearly killed both of them. Philip thought his system was foolproof, and tamper proof. So when I was able to unlock it at the last minute, I guess he decided I was clever. He came back that night after everyone else left, while I was working on the ADD.” 

“Conn, that was a year before New Dawn.” Abby sighed. “Don’t tell me you enjoyed it.”

“God no,” Connor seemed frantic. “I never wanted to do that with anyone but Hil, but he threatened my job, and your job, and  _ Hil’s _ job. Fuck, he threatened to remove Lester.” Morgan heard emotion choking his voice now. “I’m SO sorry Abby, but after everything that happened in the Cretaceous, it didn’t seem like the worst thing.” She made a gentle shhing sound “I would do anything to protect you, abbs, and Becks. You are the only family I got. After Cutter, and Stephen, and Danny, and Sarah, if I thought that if this could protect you, then it was worth it.”

“Shhh, It’s ok Conn,” Abby soothed, “He can’t hurt you, or us or anyone ever again. But really, do you think Becker would be happy if you were hurt protecting him? Has he ever been happy when you get hurt protecting him?” There was a chuckle. “You have evidence to look back on, so examine it, and get back to me, eh scientist?” She bantered, then she sighed again, “That’s the reason he was mad at you Conn, he loves you, of course he would be angry if someone was taking advantage of you.” Morgan felt an ache in his heart that he couldn’t explain. He knew Connor had a boyfriend he loved and lived in London, had an entirely other life, Morgan didn’t know what exactly he was hoping for. 

“We have lost a lot of people doing this,” Connor said abruptly. “Tom  _ and _ Cutter both died in my arms, and it’s too late now to return to just being a civvy.” There was a pregnant pause. And then with a little defiance he said, “I was ready to die today when I was out there. I am always aware of the chances of not making it back,” Morgan leaned back against the wall, slightly horrified at what he heard. Connor seemed so innocent. Yet he was in a profession that was just as risky as Morgans. Possibly riskier. The number of coworkers Abby told them about before that had died or gotten lost was a lot to lose in such a short period of time. But they went out there every time they heard about one of those tears in time to battle what came out of it and put it back where it belonged. And then keep it there. Morgan had seen it with his own eyes, the ancient land, the dinosaurs, the determination in the dying kid’s eyes to keep everyone safe. He had no doubt Connor would have died if it meant keeping those he loved from harm's way. He probably would have made the same decision himself if it were up to him. But Connor had taken that choice out of his hands when he lured the theropods away from the team. 

There was the sound of flesh on flesh and an OWW from Connor “Don’t you ever say that again Connor Temple!” Abby sounded angry, “No one knows what will happen. But when we go out ready to die, the more likely we are not to come back! And you will come back! For me, For Becker, For Matt and Jess and Emily and Finn. and yeah. For Lester too. Jess hasn’t lost anyone in the field yet, she is far too young. It tore her up when you disappeared. Think about the team. You and I are the only ones left of the original four who started everything. And I know Matt and Jess and Em and Finn have become just as much your family as Sarah and Danny and Jenny were. Maybe not as much as Cutter and Stephen, but we will always be your family Conn, which is why you always need to come back to us. And trust us when we say someone is not a good person, yeah?” Connor grumbled his ascent. Then the tone turned teasing “Oh, and those BAU Americans, yeah? They seem rather fond of you. JJ said she thought you were ‘charming’.”

There was a laugh. “Me? That’s a laugh, I’m a bumbling geek.”

“That’s what I told them.”

“Seriously, it’s a wonder I was able to capture Becker’s attention with the amount of nervous energy I have.” Morgan frowned. 

“You’ve got to stop putting yourself down like that Conn,” Abby scolded. “Being a geek doesn’t mean you are unlovable. In fact everyone in the ARC adores you. You are just a little... unique."

“If that is code for ‘dino freak who codes too much’ then sure."

“I brought your computer with me by the way,” 

“Wicked! Where is it?”

“At the hotel, can you use it one handed?”

“I can at least watch movies,” She laughed. “Fine, I’ll go get it.” She left the room and raised an eyebrow and smirked when she saw him in the hall, but didn’t say anything. Morgan walked towards the room and looked in. 

Connor was in an odd position, his back was leaning up on a pillow, against his left side, but his hips were flat on the bed. His right arm was in a sling and there was a large bandage across his back. His left arm was neatly taped and his legs were covered by the blanket, but he could tell that there were thick bandages wrapped around his left leg from his hip down. An IV was in his left hand putting fluids and much needed nutrition in his body.

His face was making a pained expression as he tried to get comfortable. Morgan knocked and Connor’s face instantly became a mask. “Derek?” He said slightly surprised “I thought you guys would have left ages ago.”

“Why would we have done that?” Morgan asked, curious. 

“Your case is finished, isn’t it? Don’t you have other cases to get to?”

“They can wait a day,”

“But people need the BAU”

“Connor, you nearly died, we wanted to come and see you, make sure you are ok. Thank you.”

“Did you come to the Triassic? My memory is a little hazy, normally I have perfect recall, but for some reason I can’t remember what happened after I passed out when I cauterized my wound.”

“Yeah, I came though to get you.” Morgan said with a soft smile. 

“I seem to remember a Tawa too…” 

“That is correct.” Said an Irish accent in the doorway. “Mid-sized theropod which  _ you _ tried to get up and take on all by your lonesome. Before I shot it with the EMD.”

“That doesn’t seem very clever of me, does it?” Connor said cringing

“Not in the slightest,” said a second voice in the doorway. 

“Sorry, Becks,” Connor blushed and looked up at one of the men in the doorway, who came closer. “Sorry, Matt.”

“Did you go through that Anomaly to keep that Trice from trampling me?” Becker asked, sitting on the bed and looking Connor in the eyes. 

“Which one, there have been so many?” Connor tried to pass off lightly, not meeting Becker’s eyes. 

“You know the one I mean, the day you went missing!” 

“It was gonna charge!” Connor tried to justify. “A Triceratops may be an herbivore, but they are still 5 tons and have huge horns. Three, last time I counted. Even you wouldn’t have been able to survive that, Action Man…” Becker glared at him. “You were giving orders to someone else, everyone had thought the Trice was in the bag. It was feet from the Anomaly when it started to turn and charge. No one else noticed it’s shift in demeanour. I did what I had to do.” He folded his left arm over his right, which was in a sling in defiance. Then winced. 

“It’s not your job to protect me Conn,” Becker said, gently uncrossing Connor’s left arm and holding his hand. “It’s literally the opposite.” Becker turned to Matt and Morgan, “Hey guys, can you give us the room?” They nodded and left. “I know about Philip.” They heard Becker say before they were out of earshot. 

“That’s gonna be an uncomfortable conversation,” Matt winced in sympathy. 

“What did this Philip do that makes everyone hate him so much?” Morgan asked curiously. 

“He tried to end the world.” Matt said lightly

Morgan lifted one eyebrow

“It was unintentional.”

“Wait, you’re serious?” 

“Deadly.”

“And Connor helped?”

“He made up some story about how it was all for free energy, He was Connor’s idol for a long time, famous scientist and entrepreneur and all that, Philip manipulated him. We don’t hold it against him. He did the right thing in the end.” 

“Why does he think you all still hate him?” 

“Does he?” Matt seemed surprised, “I guess he disappeared when the event was still fresh in everyone’s minds. We haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him yet since.” 

They went into the waiting room where they found Emily, Prentiss, JJ, Abby and Reid. 

“Becker is talking to him now.” Matt said. “Asked us to leave.” 

“Philip?” Abby asked. Matt nodded. Matt and Emily looked at Abby. “Are we missing something about Philip?” 

“I can’t tell you.” Abby sighed. “Becker confided in me, and I talked to Connor about it, but I want to leave it to Connor to tell you. If he wants to. When he is ready.” She bit her lip. Then added, “Let’s just say, Philip Burton is far more manipulative than we originally thought.” She glared down at the ground. 

Prentiss exchanged a questioning look with Morgan, who only nodded, and her eyes widened. Reid had a troubled look on his face.

Matt and Emily however, seemed like they weren’t quite sure the implications. Matt’s phone buzzed. “Becker says we can come in now.” He and Emily went off to Connor’s room.

“So this Philip sexually assaulted him?” Prentiss finally voiced when they had gone. 

“For over a year,” Abby confirmed. 

“Why didn’t he say anything,” Reid asked

“Philip owned the company that was partially funding the ARC at the time. He threatened to take away our jobs. Mine, Connor’s, Becker’s.” Abby replied

“Power assertive rapist.” Morgan classified

“They think their victim is complying but it’s still assault because they are someone of higher authority and can threaten them or their loved ones,” Prentiss explained. 

“Pretty much.” Abby nodded. “Becker saw Philip on top of Connor in his lab one day as he was walking by.” The three others winced. “Becker doesn’t blame Conner, he is just upset that he wasn’t able to help him, and that Connor didn’t come to him. But I think Connor felt slightly trapped by the whole situation.”

“Connor still worked with Philip? And believed in what he was doing?” Morgan asked

Abby nodded. “I asked how he could, but he just said that somehow he couldn’t negotiate that the Philip Burton that he idolised and the one that was doing those things to him, were the same person.”

Prentiss nodded, “separating reality from ideals. Been known to happen.” 

“Anyway, I should go give this to our genius extraordinaire,” Abby said, holding up a laptop case. Morgan and Prentiss looked at Reid. She chuffed. “I said  _ our _ genius. He may do some idiotic things, but the man is still a genius.” 

“That is an oxymoron,” Reid said in confusion, “You can’t be stupid and a genius.” 

“I didn’t say he was stupid, I said he did stupid things. EG, throwing a frozen slushie at a velociraptor.” She grinned and walked off.

“That sounds like an interesting story…” Prentiss said as she disappeared. 

“I would hazard to guess that most of their encounters make for interesting tales.” Reid said seriously. Morgan snorted. 

“Let’s go say hi, we have a plane to catch.” Prentiss said, starting down the hall. 

“What about JJ, Hotch and Rossi?” Reid asked, as JJ ran in. “JJ!” He said and went to hug her

“Sorry, the paperwork took a little longer than I thought,” She said, slightly out of breath. 

“I thought you finished that last night.” Morgan inquired. 

“I did, but Hotch didn’t like my cover story for how the Unsub died, so we had to come up with a new one.” She sighed. “It took a while. Rossi and Hotch went straight to the airfield. They said to give Connor their regards.” 

“Let’s go!” Morgan led the way down the hall and into the now crowded room. 

“Hi,” He said to everyone, “It’s really nice of you all to stick around for an extra day just for me.” Becker lightly smacked his head. 

“Stop the self-deprecation.” He said firmly. “We have to work on that again.”

“Sorry, been off my meds for 6 months and on my own.”

“Except for when you lived with us,” Emily Merchant put in

“Yeah, but they didn’t exactly have great psychotherapy medication in victorian london, Sorry Em.” She waved a hand in nonchalance.

“We just wanted to check in on you before we left,” JJ said, going over and giving the kid a kiss on the forehead. “How are you doing?”

“Not dead!” Connor said cheerfully, 

“It’s a start,” Prentiss laughed. Abby scowled. 

“We are keeping it that way,” She said, annoyed. He looked at her, sheepish. Becker looked between Connor and Abby with a question in his eyes. “Later,” She said to him. 

“Hey kid, someone on the phone wants to talk to you,” Morgan said, holding up the phone, which was on speaker. 

“ _ Yorkshire Genius?”  _ Garcia said with joy,  _ “You have no idea how worried I’ve been! No one told me anything, and I saw your name checked in at the hospital, and then signed into the operating room,” _

“Baby Girl, Slow down, He’s not going anywhere.” Morgan said with a laugh. 

“I mean, I literally can’t,” Connor interjected. “Hey, Garcia, are you gothkittyqueen?” He asked curiously. 

“ _ What makes you ask that? _ ” she asked, obviously slightly uncomfortable. 

“A hacker disappeared from a network I used to regularly socialise on and it was rumoured they went fed. I was just wondering if it was you.”

“ _ ledinosaurTemple? _ ” She gasped. “ _ I thought that was just a nickname, Temple is your actual name! _ ” He laughed. 

“I’ve missed talking to you!” He said

“ _ Same, now that I know your name I will text you.” _

“Not if I do it first.” He grinned. He hung up the phone and gave it back to Morgan. “Thanks!” He said. “It was nice talking to an old friend.”

“How long have you two known each other?” Morgan asked

“Well, She disappeared 8 years, 7 months, 15 days and 9 hours ago from the network. And we were talking regularly over the course of 6 years, 10 months, 28 days and 5 hours. So are you looking cumulatively including the time we haven’t spoken? Or just the amount of time we spent exchanging messages?” Connor asked seriously. 

“I think I get the picture kid,” Morgan said. Then there was a ping on Connor’s phone. 

He opened the message “Damn, she found me first,” He said with slight annoyance. “I’m gonna hack her.” He opened his computer and started typing until Becker put his hand down on the screen and gently closed it.

“Come on Conn, pay attention to your guests, and then rest.” He said, brushing Connor’s hair back. “Hacking can wait.”

Connor looked over at Spencer who was in the corner, “Spencer!” Reid jumped, “What books are in your bag right now?” He asked with a grin.

“Marjory Kempe,  The Nibelungenlied in the original German, The Mabinogion, and the History of Kings by Geoffery of Monmouth,” He said smiling. 

Connor grinned “Medieval literature, wicked. My Middle English is not amazing, but I make do, I loved Canterbury Tales.”

“What did you think of the Divine Comedy,” Spencer asked

“So-So,” Connor replied, “I think it’s people probably assume it’s better than it is,”

“That’s what I thought, What about Homer?”

“Fun, easy to read, at least in greek, not super challenging.”

“Same”

“Hey Geniuses,” Abby called from her side of the room, “How about we bring the conversation into a realm where all of us can participate.” Connor laughed, Reid looked sheepish. 

“Sorry Abbs,” He said with a dimpled grin. “Talking with Spencer is fun! He can understand me without me having to go back and explain everything…” 

“Sorry I’m too dumb for you,” Becker rolled his eyes. 

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Connor said looking at him sincerely. “I just meant that I’m always the smartest guy in the room, since I was a kid. And to keep from being picked on and bullied I’ve had to keep my head down and pretend not to be as smart as I am. I kinda like not being the smartest person in the room for once.” 

Reid nodded. “I was in High School at 12, my teachers didn’t know what to do with me, so they kept moving me up a grade.”

“They let you skip grades?” Connor sounded awed. “I wish I could have done that. My teachers didn’t let me. They said I had to ‘fit in’ and ‘be normal’ and my parents just told me not to draw so much attention to myself when I came home beaten up.” He shrugged. “So I stopped excelling in school. Got 70s and 60s instead of 80s and 90s. And I became a geek. I faded into the background and everyone forgot about me. It was easier that way.” 

They all watched him tell his heartbreaking story so nonchalantly that they didn’t know what to say. 

“Anyway, it has nothing to do with you, Becker,” Connor turned back to Becker.

He nodded, “I get it.”    
  
Reid smiled. “If I knew what being in High school at 12 would be like, I probably would have done the same thing.” He said.

“That bad, huh?” Connor nodded knowingly. “There’s a reason I tend to stay on the outside of groups.” 

He looked at Abby, who seemed upset. She remembered calling him a geek and criticising how he looked and dressed. She never knew it was about self preservation. “It’s Ok, Abbs,” He said to her, seeming to know what she was thinking. “I can be more myself with you guys.”

“Well, I hate to break up this tender moment,” Prentiss said abruptly, “But we have a plane to catch. “Connor, it's good to see you healing and in good spirits. Matt, we will let you know if we find anymore of those, rips in time.” He gave a relaxed salute. She left the room 

“Get better, kid,” Morgan said, patting his good leg and giving him a big smile. 

“Thanks, FBI” Connor said with a wink. 

“Bye Connor,” JJ waved as she headed out the door,

“Bye Connor,” Spencer likewise waved and left the room.

“Spencer!” Connor called, 

“Yeah?” Reid stuck his head back in the room, 

“Can text you sometime?”

“Sure, do you need my number?”

“I’ll find it.” Connor grinned as he heard JJ say “That’s  _ two _ people we will never be able to hide from,” He cackled slightly at the implications and Spencer’s small groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are many things in here that i dont know if are accurate, like I have no idea if you are allowed to skip grades or not in the UK, I am making a lot of this stuff up as I go
> 
> also, Strong Arm Bong-Soo is an awesome show K-Drama, I highly recommend it.


	5. Shep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor talks about his relationship with philip, emily tells about what she remembers from when Connor stayed with her, and Connor has a nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW, discussion about past coercive sex/rape

The ARC Team was left alone in the room now and Matt closed the door. 

“Connor,” His face turned serious. “Abby said that something else happened with Philip.” Connor blushed and looked down. The phone rang. 

“Hi Jess,” Matt said, “I’m placing you on speakerphone.”

“ _ CONNOR!!” She practically yelled, “Lester and I have been over here worried sick. Lester won’t say it, but he keeps telling me to check to see if anyone has messaged you, and looking at his own phone, and pacing. Why hasn’t anyone UPDATED US YET?” _

“Sorry, Jess,” Connor said, “I woke up not too long ago, and then there have been people around nonstop. But I’m fine.”

“You are NOT fine,” Becker put in, “you still have a crushed arm, are suffering malnutrition and an infection.”

“Ok,” Connor allowed, “I’m not on the verge of death anymore, how’s that?” 

“Yes, thankfully you didn’t need to be put into an induced coma but your heart is still weak. Lester, he suffered two cardiac arrests in the ambulance, one on the table, and another in the ICU.” They heard the man groan on the other end of the phone.

“ _ Connor, I know we joke about it, but you are NOT replaceable _ ” Lester said firmly from the other end of the line. “ _ You have the majority of the technology we work with, and programmed most of our computers. Plus you are a damn good paleontologist. Cutter would be proud. Stay alive, would you?” _ There was a pause.  _ “One word of this gets repeated and I will sue for defamation of character.” _

They all chortled. “Thanks Lester.” Connor said. “I really wasn’t trying to die, It wasn’t my intention. The Herrerasaurus was just really close to the other team, so I needed to get it away from them, then I tried climbing a tree when it tore at me with its claw and I fell. Then it’s buddy came along and I only had enough charge to take one of them down, so I took down the one closest to me and it ended up landing on my bloody arm, when I tried to get myself out from under it, it’s claw dug into my leg. I got the other one back alright though.”

“Lester, we were just going to ask Connor about what was happening with Philip, if you wanted to stay on the line.” Matt said seriously. There was a grunt.

Connor rolled his eyes, “Not with Lester, please?”

“It involves Lester, so yes, he should be able to hear what happened.” Abby said. Connor squirmed uncomfortably. 

“But he isn’t even alive anymore, so what does it matter?” Connor asked. 

“Because we care, and he hurt you, under our roof.” Becker nearly exploded. “We get to know why.”

“He threatened you!” Connor shot back, furious, “Is that what you want to know Becker? That Philip blackmailed me into sleeping with him by threatening to fire you? And Abby? And Lester?”

The room got very quiet. “ _ How long after you got back from the Cretaceous did this start? _ ” Lester asked

“A few days. Just after I was rehired. He hadn’t allowed me back into the field, and asked me to run a check on the security system.” Jess gasped. “Yeah, after that royal screw up of a day, somehow he seemed pleased with the way I disabled his security protocols. Thought it was clever. He said he liked ‘clever’. He came back that night after everyone else had left and told me that I should be his. I asked if he meant coming to work for Prospero, he laughed this weird laugh and said that was partly what he meant. Then he threw me up against a wall and pulled down my trousers.” He could hear Jess sobbing on the other end. “I tried to fight him but then he said that he would do  _ anything _ to have me, if it meant putting someone new in charge of the ARC, putting me in Prospero, or changing the Security Captain - I don’t think he knew we were dating, just that we were friends, - or feeding my best friend to her pets. He said that if I told anyone something similar would happen.” Tears dripped from Connor’s eyes. “I hadn’t really gotten to know Matt and Jess yet, so he didn’t say anything about doing anything to them.”

_ “How long?” _ Lester asked tersely. 

“I obeyed quietly until the bug attack.” Connor had a cruel curling his lips. “I had actually thought he may have cared until that point, you know, just had a weird way of showing it. When I saw that he hadn’t disabled the ARC’s self destruct feature, I knew that he was just using me, in every sense of the word. The next time he tried, I said that I wasn’t going to do it anymore. But he backhanded me across the face, threw me over a table, choked me until I nearly passed out, and took me anyway. He didn’t let me go home that night.”

Becker looked horrified. “I thought you said you didn’t come home because you were working.”

“It was better than knowing what was really happening right?” Connor asked with a wry look. “Philip pounding me into his mattress all night while I pretended that he’s you? Him finding a new kink and nearly choking me to death every twenty minutes. Honestly, I can barely remember what happened that night, I don’t even remember getting from the office to his house. I remember handcuffs holding my wrists to the headboard, tape on my mouth, hands on my throat, and his cock in my ass. And a lot of pain. I think I passed out a few times and he kept going.” 

The room was deathly silent. “The last time was right before the Convergence began.” Connor answered the unanswered question that hung in the air. He came to check up on me in the lab and asked if I was ready to change the world. Then he said he needed to congratulate me for being ‘just so clever’. When I told him he didn’t need to, he said that it was his duty to make sure bright minds are ‘nurtured’. He pulled out flex cuffs and trapped my hands, then he bent me over my workbench and took me right there. I wanted to yell out but he said quietly that if i made so much as a noise, the entire ARC Team would be shoved through the nearest anomaly and locked in it until it closed. He even named everyone he would include in the ‘Expedition’ and said the names slowly as he uh… you know. Anyway it was everyone, Matt, Emily, Abby, Finn, Jess, Lester and Becker.” He dropped his head into his working left hand 

“I’m sorry, I’m disgusting.” Becker put his hand on Connor’s head and kissed his forehead. 

“It’s not your fault Conn, you did the best you could do.”

Emily and Matt looked greatly disturbed by the story, and Abby, who had heard part of it but not it all, had tears running down her face. The other end of the phone was silent. 

“ _ Connor, _ ” Lester said finally. “ _ I’m sorry you had to deal with that alone, it must have been traumatic. None of us think any less of you. I can arrange a counselor for you if you need it once you return.” _

“Thanks Lester,” Connor said with a watery smile. There were footsteps as he seemed to walk away. 

“Connor, you do know that this isn’t your fault, right?” Matt asked, sitting down in a chair by the bed. “Coercive rape, is still rape. Even if you consent to it. If you consent because someone is holding something over your head, that is not really consent.” 

Becker looked at Connor, who was still avoiding his gaze. “He’s right you know. Coercion isn’t consent. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You still love me?” Connor asked quietly, looking at his lap. 

“Of course, I do,” Becker said, “Is that what you were worried about? Conn, that isn’t even a question.” Becker tilted Connor’s head up and stared into his eyes. “I love you, Connor Temple.” He kissed him deeply. 

Becker pulled back after a moment and stared into Connor’s eyes again. They were glassy and fevered. “I think we need a nurse” Abby got up swiftly and she and Emily ran out of the room.

“I’m tired,” Connor said, yawning and settling back into his pillow. 

“You have a fever,” Becker said, with a worried look in his eyes. 

“ _Hey Connor,_ ” Jess said nervously, Matt and Becker looked at the phone. They forgot she was still there. “ _I’m sorry this happened to you. Feel better and I will bring you lots of baked goodies when you come home.”_ _bzzz_

“Thanks Jess,” Connor said sleepily. The phone call ended as a nurse came in and she bustled about taking his pulse and temperature, Connor saw the worried look in Becker’s eyes. “It’s ok, Becks, infection was almost inevitable considering how I healed the wound, I knew this would happen. But depending on the infection, how soon antibiotics are administered after it first presents can greatly affect the infection’s rate of spread and severity.” His eyes fell closed and his breathing grew even as he drifted off to a fevered sleep.  _ bzzz _

“He has a high fever,” The nurse reported. Becker stared at her with a look like she was stating the obvious. _ bzzz _

“Yeah?” He said, “Is there something you can give him to bring it down? And what are they planning on doing about his arm?”

“I don’t know,” the nurse said, “I will get your nurse.” Becker just sighed.  _ bzzz _ Becker looked around to see what the buzzing was and saw the screen of Connor’s phone lighting up. He took a hold of the phone and looked at the messages, wondering who was messaging his boyfriend. The only ones who normally talked to him were in the room or at the ARC and had just talked to him. 

_ Unknown: Can’t believe that just happened! Crazy world, rite? Meeting IRL after so long  _

_ I don’t really talk 2 many friends from those days, u? _

_ Do u go on nemore? _

_ Genius? _

_ U mad i hacked u first? _

Becker decided to answer before the person on the other end flooded the inbox even more. 

_ Connor: Conn has a fever right now and is sleeping. He can’t talk. _

_ Unknown: OMG!! He will be ok tho rite? _

_ Connor: He has an infection, but he should be fine.  _

_ Unknown: Who r u neway? _

_ Connor: Becker.  _

_ Unknown: The Dino genius’s BF rite? _

_ Connor: Uh _

_ Unknown: I new it! Snap a pic 4 me, k? I wanna meet boy genius IRL! _

_ Connor:... Doesn’t seem ethical to do while he is sleeping… _

_ Unknown: I’ve been his OL friend for 15 years. PIC! _

_ Connor: .jpg _

_ Unknown: Cuter than I imagined. Ur a lucky man ;) _

_ Connor: I know. I will tell him to message you when he wakes up.  _

_ Unknown: .jpg _

_.jpg _

A picture was sent of a cheerful girl with curly blond hair beaming and waving at the camera. A second picture was sent directly after of the same girl blowing a kiss and winking. Becker chuckled and set Connor’s phone back down on the rolling table by the bed. 

“Who was that Becker?” Matt asked, looking up from his own phone. 

“I guess the girl that Agent Morgan called earlier.” Becker replied. He looked towards the other side of the room, Emily and Abby were chatting animatedly about something. Becker slumped in his chair and held one of Connor’s hands with both of his own, putting his closed hands to his forehead. “I am a failure as a boyfriend.” Becker said finally, looking up

“How were you supposed to know what was going on?” Matt said logically. 

“I’m his boyfriend.” Becker said again. “I should have noticed something. It’s my job as Captain  _ and _ as his partner.” 

“None of us thought Philip could sink that low.” Matt pointed out. “And Connor’s right, even if we did know, there isn’t much we could have done about it, except lose our jobs. You can’t really take something like this to someone that is higher than the one who owns the company.”

“That’s part of what is frustrating.” Becker replied. “I know there was nothing I could have done even if I did know. But the fact that I didn’t still seems to make it worse. I don’t know if it’s worse to be ignorant in the face of something horrible you cannot change even if you did know about it.” 

“You knew about it for a few days, towards the end.” Matt said, trying to reason with him. “Did it make it easier to see Connor and Philip go off together knowing what might happen even though you couldn’t prevent it?” 

“Not particularly,” Becker stewed. “It just made me angry.”

“There’s your answer,” Matt leaned towards him. “If you had known the whole time, do you really think you would have been able to keep yourself from doing something you would have regretted later? You could have gotten yourself fired and then you wouldn’t be able to look after Connor at all, in the ARC, or in the field.” 

Becker knew Matt was right, but it didn’t make him feel any better. He supposed nothing he did would make the fact that the man he loved was coerced into sex with someone he had admired right under his nose for over a year would ever make him feel better. He sighed. 

Then he remembered, “Hey Emily, do you remember much about what Connor was like when he stayed with you?”

The dark haired girl thought back, “I remember he was always smiling, I think I was about 12 or 13 at the time and I distinctly remember his dimpled grin.” She smiled. “But when I looked into his eyes, sometimes there was this pain behind them that I didn’t really understand. He always encouraged me to be curious, would slip me a penny when my parents weren’t looking and told these amazing stories about shattered mirrors leading to other worlds, people fighting dinosaurs in the future, he would show me his scars and tell me the most ridiculous stories about how he got them, ‘this beasty got me nearly dragged me back to ancient Egypt, THIS was when I was trapped with lots of beasties and my best mate; and he always spoke about a handsome knight who would come and whisk me away.” She winked at Matt. “‘One day a handsome Irishman from the future is going to come and take you to a land you could never even dream of’ He said. Of course at that time I had no idea the stories were true. Or that he was from another time. I thought he was eccentric, or a drunk. He just appeared one day, sometimes would spend all day with my brother and me, sometimes he would disappear for days and return filthy. He always had that cheeky grin when he slipped through the door back to his room. He disappeared just had he appeared. He just stopped returning, I never knew what happened to him. He talked alot about you though, Becker. He called you Shep. for shepherd,”

“Like a dog?” Becker asked, slightly affronted.

“Yeah, but he explained and it was super sweet. He said, Shep looks really scary sometimes, and can be really protective and is fiercely loyal, but in the end he is just a big puppy dog who loves me more than life itself.” Becker blushed and kissed the hand held in his own.

“Ok, that is really sweet,” Abby remarked, looking between the sleeping Connor and his blushing lover

“He would always go on about when he and Shep found this one thing, or when Shep brought him this, or his Shep was the sweetest. I always thought that he really missed his dog.” Emily grinned, “Although it did make me wonder when he told me how hard it was to sleep without snuggling with Shep… He talked about the ARC constantly. As if it was a fictional world. My brother loved his stories. He told some sad stories too, about people who were gone, betrayal, death, secrets and lies. He never talked about who he was, or where he was from, his family or friends, he just talked about this magical organisation that fought monsters that came from different worlds.”

“He seemed happy to you though?” Becker asked 

“Well,” She thought back again. “He didn’t seem wholly unhappy… But if I knew about him then what I know about him now, I may think otherwise. He is really good at pretending everything is fine.” 

A tall thin doctor with dark hair speckled with grey walked into the room and Becker looked up, his hands still on Connor’s. He was holding a chart in his hands and looked down at it. “Hi, I’m an Orthopedic surgeon assigned to Mr Temple.” The man said. “My name is Dr McCoy,”   
  
“Like in Star Trek?” Becker asked, having had sat through enough Star Trek with Connor to know all the characters,

“He’s gonna love that,” Abby remarked with a grin

The man laughed, “Yes, like in Star Trek, now, about Mr Temple, to fully regain the use of motion in his right arm he would need multiple surgeries over the course of a few months, I understand you are visiting from the UK, correct?” They nodded, “If you want to postpone, that's fine, but I do recommend the first stabilizing surgery before you go, then I can have your medical records sent over with you.”

“That would be great,” Matt said from his spot in the chair by the door. 

“If all the surgeries are successful, how long before he has full range of motion?” Becker asked

“He has quite a bit of damage, I’m afraid,” Dr. McCoy said, “but if everything goes well and he does his physical therapy like he is supposed to, I would say, within 9 months.” 

“How long before he is able to use his hand to type?” Abby asked curiously, “He is our technical analyst, and does a lot of computer work.” 

“Much sooner.” the doctor assured them. “He should have basic motion after the first surgery, but it will be very limited, and he will most likely be frustrated by how much he won’t be able to do. He will be able to type and hold things at waist level, but he won’t be able to move his arm above his shoulders much less above his head, he most likely won’t be able to move his shoulder and may be only able to use his forearm and hand. It could get challenging for him if it’s his dominant hand.”

“We will help him.” Becker stated plainly

“He is going to get so annoyed though,” Abby noted, rolling her eyes, “He hates depending on people.” 

“I do have to mention, we won’t be able to operate until his infection has subsided completely.” The doctor continued. “And until his blood counts are back to normal. His body is just too weak right now to take the extra strain of another operation. We will have to wait a few more days.”

“What is being done to treat his fever and infection?” Finn asked from next to Abby. 

“He is being given some general antibiotics, but if we find those not to be working, we will give him something stronger.” McCoy replied. “As for the fever, we will give him something to bring his fever down and manage the pain.” He looked around at the five people in the room. “Any other questions?”

The team all looked at each other, except for Becker, who’s eyes were still locked on Connor. They shook their heads. 

“A nurse will be in soon to administer the pain and fever decreasing medications, he should start recovering by tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to have his operation by the end of the week.” The doctor turned and left the room.

“You guys should go home,” Abby said to Matt and Emily. “Connor may be here awhile, and the ARC needs you.” 

“I will ask Jess to send us home tomorrow,” Matt said, “I would like to know that he at least is over his fever before we leave.” He got up and took out his phone. “I need to call Lester and update him on the situation.”

“Thanks Anderson,” Becker muttered after the team leader.

Connor mumbled in his sleep something about Bambiraptors and victorian england, Shep and shiny irish gents from the future. Becker smiled at him and swept his hand through the long brown hair of his lover. The injured man leaned into the touch and moaned slightly. “Becks,” he murmured, then talking grew slightly frantic, “Becks, stay down, Becks! NO!” He started thrashing in the bed, fighting an invisible foe, “Stupid Achillobator, no” he gasped, “Me, take… me…” Becker tried to soothe the kicking tech, “let….go…of… him…” He was crying now. “BECKER!!” he shouted, sobbing.

“Connor,” Becker had released Connor’s hand and was running a hand down his cheek, combing his hair, shaking his good shoulder, doing anything he could to wake him up. “Connor!” The rest of the team gathered by the bed. Matt came back in and joined them by the bed. 

“Connor!” Abby frantically tried to wake her friend from his nightmare. Connor would not wake.

Becker moved the bar from the side of the bed and picked Connor up, sliding behind him, careful not to injure him further. He felt Connor relax into his body, cuddling into the familiar warmth. His head nestled itself beneath Becker’s chin and rested upon the Captain’s chest, his good hand rested below it, flat. His nightmare soothed itself into a peaceful slumber. Everyone relaxed. 

“Lester says that Becker and Abby can stay with Connor until he is ready to fly home. The rest of us need to be home tomorrow.” Matt reported. Finn grumbled and hugged Abby as she went to his side. 

“Thanks Anderson, for taking care of Lester,” Becker spoke softly so as to not upset Connor in his arms. “Why don’t you all go grab something to eat, and get some rest.” he said, “I will be here.” Abby looked like she didn’t want to go, but Finn nodded and led her from the room. 

“I will be back after we eat.” Abby said as she left. Becker just waved her off and focused on his lover in his arms, giving him a kiss before falling into his own restless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What just happened? was that two chapters in one day?? 
> 
> well, thats pretty sweet.
> 
> I'm still working on like three other stories at the same time, so forgive me if it takes a while to update. 
> 
> Please kudos and Comments!
> 
> also remember i am making a lot of the facts up as i go, so please do not use anything as reference, and feel free to correct me if i screw anything up, i love learning new things. 
> 
> and yes, from here on out, it will most likely just be Primeval, although i may sneak more CM in if i can


End file.
